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Dr.    E.   a.   SHELDON. 


THE  OONTEIBUTION 


rHE  OSWEGO  NORMAL  SCHOOL 


EDUCATIONAL  PROGRESS  IN 
THE  UNITED  STATES 


BT 

ANDREW  PHILLIP  HOLLIS 


BOSTON,  U.S.A. 
D.  C.  HEATH  &  CO.,  PUBLISHERS 

1898 

53789 


Copyright,  1898, 
By  B.  C.  Hbath  &  Co. 


Ttpooeapht  bt  C.  J.  Peters  &  Son, 
Boston. 

h.  m.  plimpton  a  co.,  printers  *  binders, 
norwood,  mass.,  u.s.a. 


Y^  -Library 

t  .  LB 

>:?  193-1 

^.^  (D?HT 


^  PREFACE. 

The  matter  contained  in  these  pages  was  originally- 
projected  as  a  thesis  for  a  degree  in  the  Department  of 
^1  Pedagogy  of  the  Univei"sity  of  Wisconsin.     Upon  the 
\^  suggestion  of  friends  the  work  has  been  enlarged  with 
the  hope  that  it  may  prove  of  some  value  to  a  future 
history  of  American  pedagogy.      Incidentally  it  is  a 
small  tribute  to  the  life  of  a  man  whom  to  know  was 
an  education. 
X      Many  have  assisted  in  its  preparation,  and  the  writer 
vi  takes  this  opportunity  of  making  the  following  acknowl- 

s  edgments :  — 
^^  To  the  late  Dr.  E.  A.  Sheldon  for  access  to  many- 
original  sources  possessed  only  by  him,  many  of  which 
were  prepared  at  great  sacrifice  of  time  especially  for 
this  work,  and  for  constant  inspiration  and  encourage- 
ment extending  over  a  term  of  years  of  helpful  associa- 
tion. 

To  Dr.  J.  W.  Stearns  (Director  of  the  School  of  Edu- 
cation, University  of  Wisconsin),  Professor  Earl  Barnes, 
and  his  wife  Mrs.  Mary  Sheldon  Barnes,  for  careful  read- 
ing of  the  manuscript  and  fruitful  suggestions. 

To    Professor  Wm.    Phelps    of   St.    Paul,    Superin- 


IV  PREFACE. 

tendent  L.  H.  Jones  of  Cleveland,  Professor  M.  V. 
O'Shea  (Professor  of  the  Science  and  Art  of  Teaching 
in  the  University  of  Wisconsin),  Colonel  F.  W.  Parker 
of  the  Chicago  Normal  School,  Mrs.  Mary  Howe  Smith 
Pratt  of  Gill,  Mass.,  Professor  William  M.  Aber,  and 
his  wife  Mrs.  Mary  Ailing  Aber,  for  very  detailed  and 
helpful  contributions. 

To  Professor  I.  B.  Poucher,  Professor  Charles  S. 
Sheldon,  Professor  Amos  W.  Farnham,  and  other  mem- 
bers of  the  faculty  of  the  Oswego  Normal  School,  for 
substantial  assistance. 

To  Hon.  Charles  R.  Skinner,  New  York,  for  permission 
to  use  extended  extracts  from  his  address  at  Oswego. 

To  D.  Appleton  and  Co.  and  E.  L.  Kellogg  &  Co.  of 
New  York  for  kind  permission  to  use  cuts  furnished  by 
them. 

To  the  publishers  D.  C.  Heath  &  Co.  of  Boston  for 
courtesies  extended. 

To  many  teachers,  Oswego  graduates,  and  others,  for 
cheerful  replies  to  letters  of  inquir}^ 

Since  Chapter  V.  was  written,  Principal  F.  B.  Pal- 
mer of  the  Fredonia  (N.  Y.)  State  Normal  School,  has 
pointed  out  to  me  that  the  Fredonia  Normal  School 
was  reported  by  the  superintendent  of  public  instruc- 
tion of  the  State  of  New  York  as  having  a  kinder- 
garten in  connection  with  its  training  department  a  year 
earlier  than  Oswego.  The  priority  given  to  Oswego 
was  based  on  two  letters  received  from  Dr.  Sheldon, 
and  on  the  fact  that  both  schools  are  listed  in  the  Re- 


PREFACE. 


port  of  the  United  States  Commissioner  of  Education 
as  having  kindergartens  for  the  first  time  in  1881. 


The  tables  in  the  Appendices  do  not  lay  claim  to 
absolute  accuracy ;  but  they  were  compiled  with  some 
care,  and  will  not  be  without  value  as  evidence  for 
some  of  the  statements  made  in  the  text. 

A.  P.  HOLLIS. 

Madison,  Wis.,  December,  1897. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

Preface iii 

CHAPTER  I. 
Amebicax  Pedagogy  pbevious  to  the  Oswego  Move- 
ment          5 

CHAPTER  II. 
Oswego's  Innovation 15 

CHAPTER  III. 
The  Spbead  of  the  Osavego  Idea 26 

CHAPTER  IV. 
Application  of  the  Oswego  Idea  in  Nobmal  Schools  .      39 

CHAPTER  V. 
Later  Movements  at  Oswego 76 

CHAPTER  VI. 
Pebsonalities  in  the  Oswego  Movement 80 

CHAPTER  VII. 
Extbacts  fbom  Addbesses , 112 

Memobial  Addbesses  and  Resolutions 13l 

Appendices 153 

vii 


THE   OSWEGO   FORMAL  SCHOOL. 


CHAPTER  I. 


AMERICAN  PEDAGOGY  PREVIOUS  TO  THE  OS"WEGO 

MOVEMENT, 

The  important  place  in  the  history  of  American  ped- 
agogy to  which  the  Oswego  Normal  School,  founded  by 
Dr.  E.  A.  Sheldon,  is  entitled,  rests  upon  its  claim  to 
be  the  first  institution  to  introduce  in  a  practical  and 
noteworthy  manner  the  Pestalozzian  principles  of  in- 
struction into  the  American  common  school.  In  order 
to  understand  the  significance  of  the  Oswego  move- 
ment in  its  relations  to  pedagogical  forms  already  ex- 
isting, it  will  be  serviceable  to  take  a  short  survey  of 
the  development  of  American  pedagogy  previous  to 
1860,  the  year  when  the  Oswego  teachers  first  received 
'nstruction  in  Pestalozzian  principles. 

One  of  the  first  things  to  be  seen  from  such  a  survey 
is,  that  while  the  Pestalozzian  principles  had  long  been 
heard  of  and  talked  of  in  different  sections  of  this 
country,  they  had  taken  no  hold  upon  American 
schools.  At  the  generous  invitation  of  William  Mc- 
Clure,  an  American  who  paid  a  visit  to  Pestalozzi's 


6  THE  OSWEGO  NORMAL  SCHOOL. 

school,  Joseph  Neef,  one  of  Pestalozzi's  co-workers, 
came  to  this  country,  and  attempted  to  introduce  the 
master's  ideas  in  a  private  school  in  Philadelphia ;  and 
as  early  as  1809  Neef  published  a  book  entitled, 
Sketch  of  a  Plan  and  Method  of  Education.  But  after  a 
few  years  of  struggle  the  enterprise  failed.  From  that 
time  on,  men  like  William  C.  Woodbridge,  Horace 
Mann,  William  E.  Russell,  Henry  Barnard,  Charles 
Brooks,  and  Calvin  Stowe,  some  of  whom  had  visited 
the  Prussian  schools  at  various  times,  through  press 
and  platform,  urged  reform  of  existing  methods,  and 
the  adoption  of  systems  of  instruction  more  or  less  in 
accord  with  Prussian  ideals.^  Educational  journals  like 
the  American  Journal  of  Education^  Annals  of  Educa- 
tion^  and  the  Massachusetts  Common  School  Journal^ 
frequently  published  accounts  of  the  work  being  done  in 
European  schools  which  had  adopted  the  Pestalozzian 
methods;  and  yet  the  evidence  shows  that  up  to  1860 
Pestalozzian  principles  in  America  remained  largely  a 
matter  of  lectures  and  books  among  the  initiated  few. 
To  the  rank  and  file  of  the  teachers  of  the  land,  Pesta- 
lozzi  was  but  a  name,  or  an  eccentric  personality.  "  Not- 
withstanding the  diffusion  of  the  principles  of  Object 
Teaching  in  this  country  during  that  period,"  says  Mr. 
Calkins,  in  an  address  upon  the  History  of  Object  Teach- 

1  For  accounts  of  these  reformers  and  others,  see  Rise  and  Growth 
of  the  Normal  School  Idea  in  the  United  States,  by  Professor  J.  P. 
Gordy,  Bureau  of  Education,  1891. 

See  also  Analytical  Index  to  Barnard's  American  Journal  of  Educa- 
tion, issued  by  Bureau  of  Education,  1892. 


PREVIOUS  AMERICAN  PEDAGOGY.         7 

ing,  "its  practice  died  out  through  the  want  of  teachers 
trained  in  the  system  and  its  methods."  ^ 

A  second  important  observation  to  be  noted  is,  that 
at  this  time  (1860)  the  Normal  School  had  become  the 
highest  and  most  promising  expression  of  pedagogical 
thought  i^  America.  The  monitorial  system  of  Lan- 
caster's had  run  its  course.  Before  the  establishment 
of  the  first  American  Normal  School  at  Lexington, 
Mass.,  in  1839,  it  had  ceased  to  exist.  It  failed  be- 
cause it  assumed  that  students  could  teach  well  with- 
out a  special  preparation  for  teaching.  The  Normal 
School  succeeded  because  it  assumed  nothing,  took  no 
risks ;  for  each  student-teacher  must  not  only  be  con- 
siderably ahead  of  those  he  expected  to  teach,  but  must 
demonstrate  that  he  could  teach  before  he  left  its  halls. 
It  marked  nothing  less  than  the  inevitable  victory  of 
science  over  chance.  The  discussions  aroused  by  the 
monitorial  system  all  over  the  country  were  of  great 
value  in  interesting  the  people  in  methods  of  element- 
ary education,  and  its  very  failure  pointed  out  the  way 
to  success. 

The  teachers'  classes  in  academies  had  been  tried 
and  found  wanting.  Those  classes  had  attained  espe- 
cial prominence  in  New  York,  where  from  1827  to  1844 
they  were  the  chief  means  provided  in  New  York  State 
for  the  training  of  teachers.     They  never  gave  satis- 

1  "  History  of  Object  Teaching,"  an  address  delivered  by  N.  A.  Calkins 
in  1861.  Published  in  Barnard's  American  Journal  of  Education,  vol. 
xii.,  p.  639. 


8  THE   OSWEGO   NORMAL   SCHOOL. 

faction ;  and  Horace  Mann,  appreciating  his  own  Mas- 
sachusetts Normal  Schools,  well  expressed  the  chief 
objection  to  them.  "So  far  as  the  plan  is  concerned, 
the  striking  point  of  dissimilarity  is,  that  in  New  York 
the  teachers'  department  is  grafted  upon  an  Academy ; 
it  is  not  the  principal  but  an  incidental  object  of  the 
institution ;  it  is  not  primary,  but  secondary ;  it  does 
not  command  the  entire  and  undivided  attention  of  the 
instructors,  but  shares  that  attention  with  the  general 
objects  for  which  the  Academy  was  founded."  ^ 

Many  of  the  teachers'  classes  were  discontinued  in 
1844,  with  the  establishment  of  the  Albany  Normal, 
from  which  time  they  have  ceased  to  occupy  so  promi- 
nent a  part  in  the  training  of  teachers.^ 

The  decline  of  these  two  sturdy  institutions  left  the 
field  clear  for  the  Normal  School.  The  first  Normal 
School  in  America  possessed  the  advantage  of  having 
good  models.  Its  type  had  existed  from  the  beginning 
of  the  century  in  Prussia,  and  it  thus  came  to  us  no  un- 
fledged birdling ;  it  needed  only  judicious  adaptations 
to  American  soil  to  demonstrate  its  fitness  to  survive. 
It  started  out  with  every  distinctive  feature  of  the  mod- 
em Normal  School,  embracing :  — 

^  Quoted  from  Horace  Mann  by  Professor  J.  P.  Gordy  in  Rise  and 
Growth  of  the  Normal  School  Idea. 

2  In  1889  a  law  was  passed  in  New  York  which  transformed  the  train- 
ing-classes in  academies  from  the  control  of  the  Regents  of  the  Univer- 
sity to  that  of  the  superintendent.  This  was  done  to  unify  the  professional 
work  of  the  schools,  —  the  training-classes  being  classed  as  elementary 
training-schools,  leading  up  to  the  Normal  Schools  proper. 

See  Report  of  Superintendent  Draper  for  1890,  p.  22.  See  Gordy's 
Rise  and  Growth,  etc.,  p.  39. 


PREVIOUS  AMERICAN   PEDAGOGY.  9 

(1.)    A  department  of  Academic  Instruction, 

(2.)    Theory  of  Teaching, 

(3.)  School  of  Practice. 
The  Academic  department  always  remained  a  strong 
one ;  the  department  of  Theory  of  Teaching  made  seri- 
ous efforts  to  impart  correct  methods  for  teaching  a 
wide  range  of  subjects.  Unfortunately  for  the  early 
development  of  a  definite  and  systematic  pedagogy,  no 
detailed  and  personal  knowledge  of  the  great  improve- 
ments which  Prussia  had  made  in  her  methods  of  teaching 
guided  those  attempts  of  our  Normal  School  pioneers ; 
and  consequently  the  methods  given  were  frequently 
but  crude  applications  of  principles  of  mental  growth, 
only  vaguely  conceived  and  not  philosophically  system- 
atized.^    No  mention  is  made  in  available  accounts  of 


1  In  referring  to  the  establishment  of  the  New  Britain  (Conn.)  Nor- 
mal School,  Hon.  David  N.  Camp,  State  Superintendent  of  Instruction, 
said  in  his  report  for  1860 :  — 

"  When  the  Normal  School  was  organized  .  .  .  only  two  States,  Mas- 
sachusetts and  New  York  had  established  Normal  Schools.  No  well- 
defined  principles  of  organization  or  methods  of  instruction  and  training 
had  been  published,  as  adapted  to  the  schools  of  this  country." 

A  few  years  later,  while  in  attendance  at  a  convention  of  educators 
held  at  Oswego,  Hon.  David  Camp  told  the  convention  that  he  had 
visited  schools  in  all  of  the  Eastern  States,  also  in  the  principal  cities 
from  Maine  to  Missouri.  He  had  also  visited  schools  in  Canada,  and  in 
all  he  had  sought  for  something  good  to  take  back  to  his  own  State; " 
"but"  he  added,  "during  all  of  those  visits,  I  have  never  found  the 
principles  of  education  so  simplified  and  systematized  —  crystallized  as 
it  were  —  as  in  the  schools  of  the  city  of  Oswego.  I  came  here  to  leam ; 
and  I  shall  go  back  to  New  England,  and  tell  with  gladness  what  my 
eyes  have  seen  and  my  ears  heard." 

Barnard's  American  Journal  of  Education,  vol.  xii.,  p.  646. 


10  THE  OSWEGO   NORMAL   SCHOOL. 

these  early  Normal  Schools  of  any  distinct  and  radical 
advance  on  existing  methods.  Object-teaching  as  a 
general  method,  resting  on  universal  and  fundamental 
laws  of  mental  life,  was  certainly  not  worked  out  in  the 
early  Norniial  Schools.  The  third  department  —  the 
School  of  Practice,  or  Model  School  —  maintained  a 
checkered  existence ;  indeed,  the  one  at  Lexington 
after  a  time  suffered  a  serious  decline.  As  a  rule,  how- 
ever, the  model  school  was  considered  an  essential  piece 
of  apparatus  for  a  Normal  School,  but  its  possibilities 
were  not  appreciated.  The  classes  were  sometimes  ab- 
surdly small;  and  before  1860  no  Normal  School  had 
a  model  school  containing  all  the  grades  of  the  public 
schools,  and  approaching  in  numbers  a  system  of  city 
schools ;  ^  and  so  the  opportunities  for  training  in  execu- 
tive force,  in  discipline,  and  in  planning  for  the  exigen- 
cies of  a  city  school,  •  were  often  denied  the  student 
teachers. 

The  second  Normal  School  to  be  established  in  Amer- 
ica was  opened  at  Barre,  Mass.,  in  the  autumn  of  1839. 
It  led  an  uneventful  career,  with  the  exception  that  at 
one  time  it  apparently  came  near  being  the  pioneer  in 
introducing  object-teaching  into  the  schools;  for  we  are 
told  in  an  address  delivered  by  Hon.  J.  W.  Dickinson, 
that  "  The  Westfield  ^  Normal  School  was  the  first  to 


1  The  Model  School  of  the  New  Britain  Normal,  over  which  the 
enlightened  Dr.  Henry  Barnard  had  presided,  contained,  in  1860,  500 
children,  and  was  divided  into  four  grades. 

a  The  Barre  Normal  School  was  moved  to  Westfield  in  1841. 


PREVIOUS   AMERICAN   PEDAGOGY.  11 

show  that  all  branches  of  learning  may  be  taught  by  the 
same  objective  method."  Unfortunately  this  valuable 
phase  of  the  work  at  Westfield  attracted  little  general 
attention ;  and  it  remained  for  another  Normal  School 
in  another  State,  at  a  considerably  later  date,  to  demon- 
strate on  an  important  scale  the  great  value  of  object- 
teaching  in  common-school  branches. 

The  third  Normal  School  was  that  established  at 
Bridge  water  in  1840.  A  girls'  Normal  School  was  es- 
tablished in  Philadelphia  in  1844.  In  New  York  the 
Albany  Normal  was  established  in  the  same  year.  Dur- 
ing the  fifties,  Normal  Schools  were  established  in  New 
Britain,  Conn.,  Boston,  Mass.,  Ypsilanti,  Mich.,  Normal, 
111.,  St.  Louis,  Mo.,  Salem,  Mass.,  Trenton,  N.  J.,  and 
Millersville,  Penn. 

Some  of  these  schools  were  not  exclusively  Normal 
Schools,  but  were  conducted  in  connection  with  high 
schools.  Such  were  the  Boston  Normal  at  Boston,  the 
Girls'  Normal  School  at  Philadelphia,  and  the  St.  Louis 
Normal  School  at  St.  Louis,  Mo.  Such  were  also  a 
Training-Class  at  Syracuse,^  New  York,  a  State  Normal 
School  and  High  School  at  Charleston,  S.  C,  and  a 
Girls'  High  and  Normal  School  in  the  same  city.  At 
New  Orleans  there  was  a  State  and  city  Normal  School. 
These  Southern  schools  lived  exceedingly  precarious 
lives,  and  could  scarcely  be  expected  to  develop  foreign 


1  Started  in  1855,  according  to  Report  of  U.  S.  Com.  of  Ed.  for  1889. 
For  dates  of  others  mentioned,  see  p.  962  of  same  report. 


12  THE  OSWEGO  NORMAL   SCHOOL. 

pedagogical  theories.     There  were  three  private  Nor- 
mal Schools  in  Ohio,  which  seem  to  have  lived  a  very 
quiet  life.     In  Iowa  a  normal  department  was  main- 
tained at  the  State  University. 
_,  It  thus  appears  that  up  to  1860  there  were  some  ten 

regular  State  Normal  Schools  in  different  parts  of  the 
country,  and  perhaps  an  equal  number  which  had  as- 
sumed the  name,  if  not  all  the  functions,  of  a  Normal 
School.  It  is  thus  evident  that  the  people  had  become 
convinced  of  the  need  for  special  training  for  teachers ; 
and  though  during  the  nineteen  years  succeeding  the 
establishment  of  the  first  Normal  School,  only  ten  had 
been  established  and  maintained  by  the  States  of  the 
Union,  still  the  experiments  with  Normal  Schools  had 
not  proven  failures  ;  and  the  substantial  advantages  they 
had  furnished  their  graduates  over  untrained  teachers 
were  sufficient  to  lead  educators  to  look  to  the  Normal 
Schools  for  the  more  radical  and  far-reaching  improve- 
ments which  the  great  body  of  the  common  schools  were 
still  sadly  in  need  of. 

The  professional  work  in  these  early  schools  was  very- 
rudimentary.  But  a  few  good  text-books  of  Theory 
of  Teaching  existed  ;  the  best  of  them.  Page's  Theory  of 
Teaching,  did  not  appear  until  1847.  Hall's  Lectures 
on  School  Keeping  (1829),  Abbott's  Teacher  (1833), 
and  Emerson's  School  and  the  Schoolmaster,  were  among 
those  most  frequently  used.  None  of  these  books,  how- 
ever, had  been  the  result  of  a  close  acquaintance  with 
the  new  education  in  Prussia  and  Switzerland ;  and  most 


Professor   HERMANN   KRUSI. 


PREVIOUS   AMERICAN   PEDAGOGY.  18 

of  them  were  general  treatises  upon  school-keeping  in 
all  of  its  phases,  especially  the  moral  and  disciplinary, 
precluding  any  detailed  development  of  pedagogical 
principles  or  any  systematic  treatment  of  methods  in 
specified  subjects.  Of  more  value  to  the  investigating 
few,  but  of  little  interest  to  the  toiling  many,  were  such 
descriptive  sketches  of  European  methods  as  Professor 
Stowe's  European  Educational  Institutes  (1836),  Dr. 
Julius'  Outline  of  the  Prussian  System  (1835),  and  Pub- 
lic Instruction  in  Prussia^  Key  and  Biddle  (1836). 
Dr.  Henry  Barnard  was  continuously  trying  to  popular- 
ize these  methods  in  his  admirable  journal.  All  of 
these  articles  did  good  service  in  letting  us  know  that 
such  things  were  doing,  and  in  creating  a  desire  in  some 
circles  to  know  more  concerning  the  elaborate  efforts 
of  the  old  world  teachers.  They  labored  under  the 
disadvantage  of  being  too  abstract  to  reach  the  average 
teacher.  What  was  needed  was  a  practical  teacher 
versed  in  the  methods  at  first  hand,  who  could  put 
the  actual  work  in  operation  before  the  eyes  and  ears 
of  the  common  school  teacher.  Such  a  teacher  did  not 
succeed  in  accomplishing  this  until  the  opening  of  the 
Oswego  School. 

The  soil  was  being  prepared  in  other  ways  for  a  rev- 
olution. Teachers'  Institutes  and  Associations,  both 
State  and  National,  had  become  popular  and  useful 
means  of  spreading  pedagogical  interest  and  knowledge 
in  nearly  all  of  the  States. 

The  American  Institute  of  Instrjiction  was  organized 


14  THE  OSWEGO   NORMAL   SCHOOL. 

as  early  as  1830 ;  and  for  many  years  it  was  the  prin- 
cipal focus  of  the  progressive  ideas  of  the  country, 
and  more  especially  of  New  England.  Such  men  as 
Northend,  Mann,  Page,  and  Kriisi  made  its  meetings 
the  Mecca  of  thinking  teachers.  The  National  Educa- 
tional Association  had  just  been  organized  (1858),  and 
a  few  years  later  became  an  important  instrument  in 
aiding  the  almost  universal  adoption  of  the  Oswego 
methods.  There  were  numerous  educational  journals, 
the  best  of  which  have  already  been  mentioned. 

Such,  then,  were  the  most  obvious  features  in  Ameri- 
can pedagogy  at  the  time  of  the  founding  of  the  Os- 
wego School :  the  monitorial  system  had  flourished  and 
fallen ;  the  training-class  idea  in  academies,  as  an  equiv- 
alent of  Normal  School  training,  had  been  abandoned ; 
and  the  Normal  Schools  held  the  field,  as  the  most 
promising  exponents  of  professional  training  for  teach- 
ers. They  had  not,  however,  during  the  nineteen  years 
of  their  existence,  effected  any  striking  changes  in  the 
great  body  of  the  American  common  schools ;  but  their 
influence,  combined  with  other  forces  such  as  the  educa- 
tional associations  and  accounts  of  Prussian  schools  and 
schoolmasters,  had  made  the  time  ripe  for  a  popular 
reform  in  education  which  in  a  few  short  years  swept 
through  the  common  schools  and  the  Normal  Schools 
of  the  land.  How  this  reform  began  will  be  traced  in 
the  next  chapter. 


CHAPTER   II. 

OSWEGO'S   rNNOVATION. 

"  The  history  of  the  Normal  School  at  Oswego,  N.Y., 
constitutes  an  important  chapter,  not  only  in  the  history 
of  the  training  of  teachers,  but  in  the  history  of  the 
public  schools  of  this  country."  So  writes  Professor 
Gordy  in  his  Rise  and  Growth  of  the  Normal  School 
Idea  in  the  United  States. 

Referring  to  the  Oswego  Normal  School,  Dr.  A.  D. 
Mayo  said  in  an  address  delivered  before  its  alumni  in 
1886,  "It  was  reserved  for  New  York,  always  the 
broadest  and  most  catholic  of  the  older  States,  to  take 
up  the  work  so  well  begun,  and  establish  the  final 
type  of  the  American  State  Normal  and  City  Training- 
Schooir 

How  was  it  that  the  Oswego  Normal  School,  with 
ten  State  Normal  Schools  already  established  in  this 
country,  some  of  them  having  twenty  years  the  start, 
came  to  be  the  type  of  the  American  Normal  School, 
—  came  to  be  regarded  as  the  "  Mother  of  Normal 
Schools  "  ? 

The  answer  to  this  question  involves  a  rehearsal  of 
some  features  of  Oswego's  history.  At  the  first  read- 
ing of  the  early  history  of  the  Oswego  schools,  one  is 

15 


16  THE  OSWEGO  NORMAL  SCHOOL. 

tempted  to  draw  parallels  between  the  lives  of  the 
founder  of  American  Pestalozzianism  and  Pestalozzi 
himself.  But  upon  reading  further,  especially  of  the 
steady  and  systematic  evolution  of  the  Oswego  schools, 
one  sees  that  parallels  are  devices  too  unyielding  for 
purposes  of  history  or  biography.  In  one  respect,  how- 
ever, the  life  of  Dr.  E.  A.  Sheldon  was  fundamentally 
parallel  with  that  of  Pestalozzi  —  they  both  loved  chil- 
dren, —  which  means  that  they  were  both  endowed  with 
sympathetic  insight  into  what  G.  Stanley  Hall  would 
call  the  content  of  the  child-mind.  They  were  both 
philanthropists.  The  reader  has  only  to  recall  Pesta- 
lozzi's  school  for  poor  children  at  Neuhof,  and  more 
especially  the  orphan  school  at  Stanz,  and  compare  it 
with  Mr.  Sheldon's  first  "ragged  school  ...  of  one 
hundred  and  twenty  wild  Irish  boys  and  girls  of  all 
ages,  from  five  to  twenty-one,"  to  observe  this  simi- 
larity. "  As  my  father  went  to  his  work  of  a  morning, 
his  warm-hearted  Irish  children  trooped  about  him, 
seizing  him  by  the  fingers  or  by  the  coat-tails,  wherever 
they  could  best  catch  hold,  to  the  great  amusement  of 
the  store-keepers  and  the  passers-by."  ^  This  was  surely 
thoroughly  Pestalozzian  in  spirit.  But  in  most  other 
respects  the  two  men  were  widely  different.  The 
young  philanthropist  at  Oswego  had  spent  three  years 
at  college,  and  possessed  a  sturdy  common  sense  and 

1  Biographical  sketch  of  E.  A.  Sheldon,  by  Mrs.  Mary  Sheldon 
Barnes,  in  Historical  Sketches  of  the  First  Quarter  Century  of  the 
Oswego  Normal  School. 


OSWEGO'S  INNOVATION.  17 

executive  force,  the  lack  of  which  in  Pestalozzi  was  the 
despair  of  his  associates  and  patrons  alike.  The  story 
of  the  development  of  the  Oswego  schools  under  Dr. 
Sheldon's  guidance,  from  the  "  ragged  school "  of  1848 
to  the  schools  which  made  Oswego  "a  sort  of  Mecca 
for  educators  from  nearly  every  loyal  State,"  i  has  been 
well  told  by  Professor  Wm.  M.  Aber  in  the  Popular 
Science  Monthly  for  May,  1893. 

"As  a  superintendent  of  schools  he  (Mr.  Sheldon) 
might  have  ended  his  days.  ...  As  machines  for 
securing  from  the  pupils  the  learning  memoriter  of  so 
many  pages  per  day,  and  from  the  teachers,  recitation, 
hearing,  marking,  and  reporting,  his  schools  were  emi- 
nently successful.  Teachers,  pupils,  and  patrons  neither 
knew  nor  desired  anything  better;  but  that  sympathy 
with  childhood  wliich  had  led  Mr.  Sheldon  into  this 
work  was  not  satisfied  with  these  poor  results.  Five 
years  of  growing  dissatisfaction  with  the  current  range 
of  subjects  and  methods  of  instruction  had  culminated 
in  a  determination  to  prepare  some  books  and  charts  for 
himself,  when  a  visit  to  Toronto  revealed  the  object  of 
his  search.  He  saw  there  in  the  National  Museum, 
though  not  used  in  their  own  schools,  collections  of  ap- 
pliances employed  abroad,  notably  in  the  Home  and 
Colonial  Training-School  in  London.  Evidently  the 
seed  sown  by  this  school  had  not  found  in  Toronto  so 
good  a  soil  as  in  the  mind  of  this  Yankee  schoolmaster. 
From  this  visit  he  returned  with  the  delight  of  a  dis- 
1  Barnard's  American  .fournal  of  Education,  1865. 


18  THE  OSWEGO  NORMAL  SCHOOL. 


coverer  of  a  new  world,  laden  with  charts,  books,  balls, 
cards,  pictures  of  animals,  building  blocks,  cocoons, 
cotton  balls,  samples  of  grain,  and  specimens  of  pottery 
and  glass. 

In  1859  a  new  course  for  the  primary  schools  was 
introduced  at  Oswego,  in  which  lessons  on  form,  color, 
size,  weight,  animals,  plants,  the  human  body,  and 
moral  instruction  were  prominent.  But  his  teachers 
knew  little  about  the  subject-matter  of  such  lessons, 
and  less  about  methods  of  teaching  them.  The  super- 
intendent was  forced  to  become  the  teacher  and  trainer 
of  his  teachers.  Without  training  himself,  he  sadly 
felt  the  inadequacy  of  his  instructions,  and  determined 
to  try  to  obtain  a  training-teacher."  But  to  whom  should 
he  turn  ?  Here,  again,  the  same  love  for  direct  contact 
with  the  original,  which  led  the  young  superintendent 
to  discard  books  and  words  for  things  and  ideas  in  his 
revised  course  of  study,  now  led  him  to  reject  all  second- 
ary sources  to  be  found  in  this  country,  and  to  apply 
at  once  to  the  fountain-head  of  the  Pestalozzian  system. 
Pestalozzi  himself  had  been  dead  for  thirty-seven  years  ; 
but  through  his  Toronto  visit  Dr.  Sheldon  learned  of  a 
flourishing  institution  established  in  London  by  Dr. 
Mayo,  a  friend  and  pupil  of  Pestalozzi's,  and  in  which 
the  Swiss  reformer's  methods  had  already  received  suc- 
cessful adaptation  to  English  schools.^  An  illustration 
of  the  contagion  of  Dr.  Sheldon's  enthusiasm,  as  well 

1  For  a  full  account  of  this  interesting  institution,  see  Barnard's 
American  Journal  of  Education,  vol.  ix.,  pp.  429-487. 


OSWEGO'S   INNOVATION.  19 

as  of  the  love  and  confidence  of  his  teachers,  is  the  way 
in  which  he  secured  the  finances  to  induce  such  a 
teacher  to  bring  the  new  methods  direct  to  this  country. 
The  Board  of  the  Oswego  Schools  had  magnanimously 
consented  to  the  employment  of  such  a  teacher  on  con- 
dition of  its  not  costing  the  city  a  single  cent.  Where- 
upon a  number  of  the  teachers  gave  up  for  one  year 
half  their  salaries^  and  this,  too,  when  their  salaries 
ranged  from  only  $300  to  $500,  and  the  new  methods 
would  increase  rather  than  diminish  the  demands  made 
upon  each  teacher's  time  and  skill.  This  power  to  win 
and  to  hold  the  love  and  the  confidence  of  his  teachers 
and  students  has  remained  one  great  secret  of  Dr.  Shel- 
don's success  during  the  forty-nine  years  of  his  ministry 
in  the  cause  of  education. 

By  this  action  of  the  teachers,  Dr.  Sheldon  was  en- 
abled to  procure  from  the  London  institution  the  ser- 
vices of  a  woman  of  rare  insight  and  pedagogical 
experience,  Miss  M.  E.  M.  Jones.  She  was  joined  soon 
afterwards  by  Herman  Kriisi,  who  had  already  taught 
and  lectured  in  this  country  several  years,  and  whose 
father  had  been  one  of  Pestalozzi's  most  trusted  helpers 
at  Yverdun.  A  few  years  later  Henry  Barnard  referred 
to  Professor  Kriisi  as  the  man  "  who  has  stood  nearer  to 
the  fountain-head  of  these  methods,  the  personal  teach- 
ings of  Pestalozzi,  than  any  living  teacher  among  us." 
This  prompt  action  of  Dr.  Sheldon's  was  Oswego's  In- 
novation. Now  began  a  series  of  experiments  in  objec- 
tive teaching  which  soon  attracted  the  attention  of  the 


20  THE   OSWEGO   NORMAL   SCHOOL. 

foremost  educators  of  the  country,  and  which  undoubt- 
edly determined  the  subsequent  character  of  elementary 
education  in  America,  while  at  the  same  time  they  fur- 
nished to  the  Normal  Schools  concrete  and  definite 
realizations  of  principles  which  had  long  been  the  sub- 
ject of  abstract  discussion,  or  which  at  most  had  re- 
ceived but  local  and  tentative  applications.  Professor 
Aber  well  says  in  his  paper  previously  quoted :  — 

"  These  new  ideas  were  discussed  by  schoolmen  be- 
fore New  York  State  had  a  Normal  School ;  and  the 
school  at  Albany  was  founded  and  began  the  teaching 
of  educational  theories  before  the  Oswego  school  was 
even  thought  of.  What  Dr.  Sheldon  did  was  to  focus 
all  these  floating  ideas  on  actual  practice,  and  work  out 
a  systematic  and  rational  expression  of  these  theories 
for  the  daily  work  of  the  schoolroom,  —  to  do  what 
other  men  were  dreaming  about." 

That  the  work  thus  started  at  Oswego  was  a  real 
innovation,  there  is  abundant  evidence  to  show ;  and 
many  educators  are  united  in  ascribing  to  the  Oswego 
School  the  credit  of  having  first  successfully  introduced 
Pestalozzian  principles  into  our  common  schools,  and  of 
having  furnished  the  model  organization  of  professional 
work  after  which  nearly  all  Normal  Schools,  State  and 
city,  established  since  1860,  have  been  patterned. 

It  is  not  the  object  of  this  sketch  to  attempt  an  ex- 
position of  the  Oswego  methods.^     That  has  long  ago 

1  For  clear  expositions  of  the  Oswego  Methods,  see  Superintendent 
Sheldon's  Reports  of  the  Board  of  Education  of  the  Oswego  schools  for 


OSWEGO'S   INNOVATION.  2l 

been  rendered  unnecessary.  Not  only  has  that  been 
done  in  numerous  books  and  pamphlets,  but  they  can 
be  witnessed  doubtless  in  the  reader's  own  city  schools. 
Pestalozzian  methods  have  been  so  widely  taught  in 
various  normal  and  training-schools  throughout  the 
land,  and  so  widely  adopted  in  the  common  schools  of 
all  the  States,  that  they  have  long  since  ceased  to  bear 
the  name  "  Oswego  Methods,"  which  was  so  commonly 
applied  to  them  twenty-five  years  ago.  They  may  still 
be  witnessed  along  their  original  lines  at  the  State  Nor- 
mal and  Training-School  at  Oswego,  N.Y.,  though  here 
they  are  constantly  undergoing  modification  and  exten- 
sion as  the  experience  of  their  originator  has  accumu- 
lated, and  the  sciences  of  Psychology  and  Pedagogy 
have  advanced.  It  will  be  sufficient,  before  leaving  this 
chapter,  to  exhibit  in  a  few  quotations  how  generally 
and  how  cheerfully  Oswego's  priority  is  acknowledged. 

Professor  Gordy  has  made  the  most  detailed  study 
of  Normal  School  History  in  the  United  States  that 
has  appeared  in  this  country.  His  opinion  of  Oswego's 
place  in  the  history  of  American  pedagogy  is  quoted 
at  the  head  of  this  chapter,  as  is  also  that  of  the  emi- 
nent lecturer  and  writer  upon  educational  subjects.  Dr. 
A.  D.  Mayo. 

Farther   along.   Professor  Gordy  says    of   Dr.  Shel- 

the  ten  years  beginning  in  1859;  also  his  address  on  Object  Teaching 
before  the  National  Educational  Association,  published  in  Barnard's 
American  Journal  of  Education,  vol.  xiv.  (1864),  p.  93;  also  Rise  and 
Growth  of  the  Xormal  School  Idea,  chap,  iv.,  Professor  J.  P.  Gordy. 
Other  sources  are  mentioned  in  bibliography  at  close  of  this  work. 


22  THE   OSWEGO   NORMAL  SCHOOL. 

don's  first  course  of  study  based  upon  Pestalozzian  prin- 
ciples :  — 

"  I  regret  very  much  that  the  limits  within  which  I  am  obliged 
to  confine  myself  make  it  impossible  for  me  to  present  this  course 
of  study  without  abbreviation.  Marking  as  it  does  an  epoch  in 
the  history  of  the  public  schools  of  this  country,  it  well  deserves 
the  careful  attention  of  those  who  are  interested  in  our  educa- 
tional history." 

And  again  on  another  page,  — 

"  The  Normal  School  at  Oswego  certainly  made  some  impor- 
tant advances.  The  objective  method  of  teaching  —  the  method 
which  brings  the  mind  of  the  pupil  into  direct  contact  with  facts, 
and  thus  seeks  to  stimulate  it  to  the  proper  kind  of  activity  — 
first  received  its  complete  illustration  in  the  practice  school  of 
this  institution." 

Dr.  Boone  declares,  in  his  History  of  Education  in  the 
United  States,  that,  — 

"Miss  Jones  .  .  .  shares  with  Superintendent  Sheldon  the 
credit  of  having  systematically  established  the  principle  of  object- 
teaching  in  this  country." 

Professor  S.  S.  Greene  of  Brown  University,  the  well- 
known  writer  of  text-books,  in  making  a  report  on  the 
Oswego  Methods  for  a  committee  of  educators  in  1861, 
said  for  the  committee,  — 

"  The  examinations  which  it  had  been  their  privilege  to  wit- 
ness during  the  past  week  have  impressed  them  with  the  convic- 
tion, that  we  are  on  the  eve  of  a  great  and  important  revolution 
in  the  education  of  our  country." 


OSWEGO's   INNOVATION.  23 

Professor  M.  V.  O'Shea  of  the  University  of  Buffalo,^ 
Buffalo,  N.Y.,  expressed  himself  in  a  recent  letter  as 
follows :  — 

"  I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that  the  Oswego  Normal 
School  has  had  a  greater  beneficial  influence  upon  elementary 
education  than  any  other  institution  in  the  country." 

N.  A.  Calkins,  author  of  Primary  Object  Lessons^  in 
an  address  on  The  History  of  Object-Teaching^  delivered 
in  1862,  before  an  educational  convention  held  at  Os- 
wego, after  words  of  commendation  of  the  work  he  saw 
at  Oswego,  said,  — 

"  Such  were  the  efforts  for  the  first  systematic  introduction 
of  Object-Teaching  into  the  United  States ;  and  the  honor  of 
this  achievement  is  due  to  the  city  of  Oswego,  her  earnest  su- 
perintendent, E.  A.  Sheldon,  Esq.,  and  her  progressive  Board 
of  Education.  .  .  .  To  any  one  who  may  desire  to  see  the  prac- 
tical operations  of  Object-Teaching,  and  the  best  system  of 
elementary  instruction  to  be  found  in  this  country,  let  me  say, 
make  a  visit  to  Oswego." 

Dr.  W.  T.  Harris,  United  States  Commissioner  of 
Education,  thus  expressed  himself  on  the  occasion  of 
Oswego's  quarter  centennial  anniversary :  — 

"  I  went  on  a  pilgrimage  to  the  shrine  at  Oswego,  and  saw  some 
of  the  best  work  done  there  by  Dr.  Sheldon  and  Miss  Cooper  that 
I  had  ever  seen."  2 


1  Now  of  the  University  of  ■Wisconsin  (School  of  Education). 

2  Quoted  by  Mrs.  Delia  Lathrop  Williams  in  a  paper  on  "The  In- 
fluence of  the  Oswego  State  Normal  School  in  the  West."    Published  in 


24  THE   OSWEGO  NORMAL   SCHOOL. 

And  so  also  A.  J.  Rickoff,  late  superintendent  of  the 
schools  at  Cleveland,  Ohio :  — 

"  In  response  to  your  request  that  I  state  what  I  know  of  the 
influence  of  the  Oswego  Normal  School,  I  have  to  say  that  to  it 
we  owe  the  immediate  impulse  and  the  direction  of  the  reform 
methods  of  instruction  which  is  now  in  progress  in  the  schools  of 
the  United  States." 

The  following  generous  expression  from  Colonel 
F.  W.  Parker  speaks  for  itself :  — 

Dear  Sir,  — 

In  answer  to  your  circular  of  Dec.  21,  allow  me  to  say  that  in 
my  experience  as  a  teacher,  Superintendent  of  Schools,  and  Prin- 
cipal of  the  Chicago  Normal  School,  I  place  the  Oswego  Normal 
School  as  first  in  its  influence  upon  the  education  of  this  country. 
.  .  .  Oswego,  too,  occupies  the  place  of  a  pioneer  in  the  new 
education ;  it  had  the  honor  to  begin  object-teaching  in  1861, 
and  from  crude  beginnings  has  steadily  worked  onward  and 
upward  to  better  things.  There  are  other  normal  schools  which 
have  had  a  great  influence  upon  education,  but  I  must  place  the 
influence  of  the  Oswego  Normal  School  as  first  among  them  all. 
Its  principal.  Dr.  E.  A.  Sheldon,  is  a  saint  in  all  that  pertains 
to  the  development  of  human  souls. 

Very  truly  yours, 

Francis  W.  Parker. 

In  barest  outline,  the  innovation  at  Oswego  in  its 
earliest  stage  may  be  conveniently  separated  into  five  as- 
pects, — first,  the  great  emphasis  placed  upon  the  study 
of  the  mental  life  of  the  children ;  second,  the  detailed 

Historical  Sketches  of  the  Oswego  State  Normal  and  Training-School 
(1887). 


OSWEGO's   INNOVATION.  25 

and  elaborate  applications  made  of  Pestalozzian  prin- 
ciples throughout  the  separate  subjects  of  an  extended 
course  of  study ;  thirds  the  elevation  of  the  model  school 
into  its  rank  as  an  indispensable  laboratory  for  teachers 
and  students-in-training  and  its  expansion  into  a  com- 
plete graded  city  school  system  ;  fourth^  the  great  im- 
portance given  to  Nature  Study ;  ffth^  the  zeal  for 
the  propagation  of  the  nevr  methods,  which  early  caused 
it  to  assume  the  function  of  a  national  Normal  School. 
This  last  point  will  be  discussed  in  the  next  chapter, 
under  the  head  of  The  Spread  of  the  Oswego  Idea. 


t 


CHAPTER   III. 

THE    SPREAD    OP   THE    OSWEGO   IDEA. 

The  Oswego  Training-School  formally  opened  in  May, 
1861.  In  that  year  most  of  its  pupils  were  the  teachers 
of  the  Oswego  schools.  Before  the  close  of  the  year 
Superintendent  Sheldon  had  become  convinced  that  now 
without  doubt  he  had  made  no  mistake  in  placing  his 
hope  for  the  emancipation  of  his  school-children  in  the 
Pestalozzian  disciples.  The  new  methods  proved  them- 
selves to  be  based  upon  laws  of  the  human  mind  which 
were  as  deep  and  as  broad  as  the  human  race ;  they  were 
thus,  except  in  minor  particulars,  independent  of  local 
environment,  were  as  completely  applicable  to  the 
American  as  to  the  German  mind,  to  the  children  of 
Boston  as  to  those  of  Oswego.  Teachers,  children,  and 
parents  rejoiced  at  what  they  saw.  The  innovation 
meant  a  good  deal  more  than  a  substitution  of  object 
lessons  for  text^books ;  it  meant  a  complete  change  of 
front  of  the  schoolmaster  to  the  child.  The  child  was 
no  longer  regarded  as  a  refractory  little  animal  to  be 
forced  into  the  harness,  fit  or  misfit ;  nor  were  his  little 
members  of  body  and  mind  brought  by  weary  months 
of  relentless  pressure  to  fill  out  the  casts  prepared  from 
aforetime  by  the  elders  ;   on  the  contrary,  the  school- 

26 


THE  SPREAD   OF   THE   OSWEGO  IDEA.  27 

master  became  the  learner,  following  and  guiding  the 
happy  child  by  turns,  adapting  his  own  stiff  nature  to 
childhood's  freedom,  to  its  curious  wonder  at  Nature's 
secrets,  to  its  love  of  play,  and  demand  for  unconven- 
tional exercise.  The  parents  testified  at  the  end  of  the 
year  that  the  children  no  longer  dreaded  school,  they 
could  not  be  kept  from  it.  It  was  the  dawn  of  child- 
hood's day  in  America. .  The  kindergarten  after  this 
found  easy  admission  into  the  hearts  of  the  American 
public.     It  was  not  altogether  a  new  idea. 

Dr.  Sheldon  and  his  associates  longed  to  see  these 
changes  working  their  beneficent  results  throughout 
the  schools  of  our  country.  With  this  end  in  view,  in 
December,  1861,  he  sent  invitations  to  a  number  of 
prominent  educatoi-s  in  various  parts  of  the  country  to 
come  and  see  for  themselves  the  work  doing  at  Oswego, 
that  the  teachers  of  the  country  might  have  an  authori- 
tative judgment  concerning  the  new  system.  A  num- 
ber of  the  gentlemen  invited  accepted  the  invitation, 
among  whom  were  Professor  Wm.  F.  Phelps,  principal  of 
the  State  Normal  School  at  Trenton,  N.  J. ;  David  N. 
Camp,  Superintendent  of  Schools  in  Connecticut,  and 
principal  of  the  State  Normal  School ;  D.  H.  Coch- 
rane, principal  of  the  State  Normal  School  at  Albany, 
N.  Y. ;  Miss  L.  E.  Ketchem,  Superintendent  of  the 
School  of  Practice  in  the  State  Normal  School  at 
Bloomington,  111.  These  educators  spent  three  days 
in  listening  to  the  exercises  in  the  Oswego  Schools. 
Professor  Phelps  was  appointed  chairman  of  a  special 


28  THE   OSWEGO  NORMAL   SCHOOL. 

committee  to  prepare  the  report.  This  report  was 
exhaustive  and  discriminating,  and  it  constitutes  a 
most  important  document  in  the  history  of  Ameri- 
can pedagogy.  It  was  the  first  noteworthy  instru- 
ment in  the  spread  of  the  Oswego  Idea.  Its  hearty 
commendations  represented  the  views  of  scholars  from 
widely  different  sections  of  the  country,  and  reached 
the  attention  of  many  whom  the  annual  reports  of  Dr. 
Sheldon  had  not  reached. 

A  closing  extract  from  the  report  will  show  the 
nature  of  its  conclusions :  — 

1.  That  the  principles  of  that  system  are  philosophical  and 
sound ;  that  they  are  founded  in,  and  are  in  harmony  with,  the 
nature  of  man,  and  hence  are  best  adapted  to  secure  to  him  such 
an  education  as  will  conduce  in  the  highest  degree  to  his  welfare 
and  happiness,  present  and  future. 

2.  That  the  particular  methods  of  instruction  presented  in  the 
exercises  before  us,  as  illustrative  of  these  principles,  merit  and 
receive  our  hearty  approbation,  subject  to  such  modification  as 
experience  and  the  characteristics  of  our  people  may  determine  to 
be  wise  and  expedient. 

Resolved,  That  this  system  of  primary  instruction,  which  sub- 
stitutes in  great  measure  the  teachers  for  the  book,  demands  in  its 
instructors  varied  knowledge  and  thorough  culture  ;  and  that  at- 
tempts to  introduce  it  by  those  who  do  not  clearly  comprehend 
its  principles,  and  who  have  not  been  trained  in  its  methods,  can 
only  result  in  failure.^ 

1  For  a  full  copy  of  this  report,  which  gives  detailed  accounts  of  many 
of  the  object  lessons,  see  Barnard's  American  Journal  of  Education,  voL 
xii.  (1862),  p.  605. 


THE  SPREAD   OF   THE   OSWEGO   IDEA.  29 

Some  of  the  letters  received  by  Dr.  Sheldon  from 
some  of  the  gentlemen  who  could  not  attend  the  con- 
vention throw  so  much  light  upon  the  state  of  educa- 
tion at  the  time,  and  the  way  in  which  the  new  methods 
were  received,  that  I  may  be  pardoned  for  inserting  one 
or  two.  Notice  how  cogently  Hon.  J.  D.  Philbrick,  then 
Superintendent  of  Schools  of  Boston,  states  the  reasons 
for  the  former  failures  attending  attempts  at  teaching  Pes- 
talozzian  principles  in  this  country.    He  wrote  in  part :  — 

"  I  entertain  a  high  appreciation  of  the  value  of  the  Pestaloz- 
zian  principles  of  primary  education  which  have  been  so  success- 
fully introduced  into  the  schools  of  your  city  from  the  Training- 
School  in  London,  by  your  efficient  Superintendent,  Dr.  E.  A. 
Sheldon.  I  regard  the  proposed  exhibition  in  Oswego  as  highly 
important,  inasmuch  as  it  will  doubtless  afford  a  better  opportu- 
nity than  has  ever  hitherto  been  enjoyed  in  this  country,  of  witness- 
ing the  results  of  instruction  on  the  Pestalozzian  plan  of  developing 
the  faculties  by  means  of  lessons  on  objects,  animals,  plants,  form, 
size,  number,  color,  place,  and  drawing,  together  with  various  phys- 
ical exercises.  I  shall  look  for  the  report  of  the  able  committee 
on  the  subject  with  much  interest.  This  movement  will  also  be 
useful  in  directing  the  attention  of  educators  more  fespecially  to 
the  defects  of  primary  education,  which  are  more  grave,  more 
numerous,  and  more  difficult  to  remedy,  than  those  of  any  other 
department, 

"  I  sympathize  with  those  who  are  endeavoring  to  diffuse  more 
just  views  among  the  people  respecting  the  nature  and  objects  of 
elementary  education,  and  I  would  give  them  my  co-operation 
and  support.  Still,  I  feel  that  the  greatest  instrumentality  for 
the  improvement  of  primary  education,  and  that  on  which  we 
must  mainly  rely,  is  the  professional  training  of  teachers.  Our 
theories  may  be  sound,  but  they  cannot  work  out  themselves. 


30  THE  OSWEGO   NORMAL   SCHOOL. 

The  Pestalozzian  principles  have  long  been  familiar  to  the  leading 
educators  in  this  country ;  and  yet  they  have  made  little  progress  in  our 
primary  schools,  for  the  want  of  teachers  competent  to  apply  them  in 
practice.  Not  but  that  the  teachers  are  well  educated  ;  but  they 
have  not  had  the  advantages  of  a  professional  training-school,  so 
that  they  undertake  their  wdrk  with  every  preparation  but  that 
most  of  all  needed. 

"  It  is  upwards  of  thirty  years  since  eiforts  were  made  to  engraft 
the  Pestalozzian  principles  upon  the  Boston  system  of  primary 
instruction.  Josiah  Holbrook,  A.  B.  Alcott,  Professor  William 
Russell,  Joseph  Ingraham,  and  others  labored  earnestly  in  the 
cause.  Itf*the  Journal  of  Education,  edited  by  Professor  Russell, 
and  published  in  Boston  in  1829,  we  find  some  of  the  ablest  arti- 
cles on  the  subject.  Holbrook's  apparatus  and  specimens  of 
natural  history  were  placed  in  some  of  our  primary  schools ;  and 
indeed,  at  that  time,  and  for  a  considerable  period  afterwards, 
a  cabinet  was  considered  an  indispensable  part  of  a  primary  school 
apparatus.  But  after  a  time  the  Object-Teaching  died  out,  be- 
cause the  teachers  were  not  trained  in  the  system.  In  our  recent 
efforts  to  revive  the  system  to  some  extent,  I  find  that  where  the 
teacher  is  not  interested  in  it,  the  results  are  far  from  satisfactory. 
But  the  same  is  true,  indeed,  with  every  branch. 

"  With  the  best  wishes  for  the  success  of  your  exhibition,  I  am, 

sir, 

Yours  most  truly, 

John  D.  Philbrick." 

Similar  letters  ^  of  interest  and  commendation  were 
received  from  Dr.  Henry  Barnard,  Hon.  B.  G.  Northrop 

1  A  number  of  these  letters  are  printed  in  Superintendent  Sheldon's 
Ninth  Annual  Report  to  the  Board  of  Education  of  Oswego.  These  re- 
ports are  a  mine  of  information  regarding  the  new  methods.  They  contain 
many  full  reports  of  lessons  given,  examinations  conducted,  and  clear 
and  detailed  discussions  of  the  Pestalozzian  principles  and  their  adap- 


THE  SPREAD   OF   THE   OSWEGO   IDEA.  31 

of  Massachusetts,  and   other  gentlemen   prominent  in 
educational  affairs  in  different  parts  of  the  country. 
Dr.  Sheldon  wrote  in  his  report  for  1862 ; — 

"  During  the  past  year  hundreds  of  letters  have  been  received 
from  every  portion  of  the  country,  many  of  them  of  the  most 
flattering  character,  showing  a  deep  interest  in  these  methods  of 
instruction.  It  is  evidently  taking  a  deep  hold  of  the  educational 
mind  of  this  country." 

Students  not  living  in  Oswego  were  admitted  to  the 
Training-School  at  its  inception ;  and  in  the  following 
year  one  finds  two  of  the  graduating-class  hailing  from 
Massachusetts,  two  from  Connecticut,  one  from  Ver- 
mont, two  from  Michigan,  and  others  from  different 
parts  of  New  York  State.  There  were  twenty-three  in 
this  second  graduating-class;  nineteen  of  these  taught 
outside  of  Oswego ;  seventeen  of  the  nineteen  in  other 
States, —  Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  Maryland,  West 
Virginia,  Indiana,  Illinois,  Iowa,  Michigan,  Kansas, 
Georgia,  Mississippi,  and  Ohio.  As  will  be  shown  far- 
ther along,  this  steady  stream  of  migration  of  Oswego 
graduates  into  the  States,  especially  the  Western  States,  ^ 
continued  unabated  for  a  series  of  years  and  constitutes 
the  most  important  means  by  which  Oswego  ideas 
spread  throughout  the  country  in  what  seems  an  incred- 
ibly short  space  of  time.  The  demand  which  thus  called 
for  recruits  to  go  east  and  west  on  missions  of  peace, 

tations  to  American  schools.    But  they  are  getting  scarce,  and  it  is  to 
be  hoped  they  will  not  be  allowed  to  go  out  of  print. 


32  THE  OSWEGO  NORMAL   SCHOOL. 

speaks  most  eloquently  of  the  great  interest  the  Ameri- 
can people  took  in  the  improvement  of  their  common 
schools  at  a  time  when  the  imperative  demand  for  re- 
cruits in  another  army,  whose  mission  was  grim  war, 
made  neglect  of  education  a  natural  and  pardonable 
thing. 

Before  following  this  migration  with  any  detail,  how- 
ever, it  will  not  be  out  of  place  to  notice  an  episode 
which  shows  that  the  path  of  the  reformer  is  seldom 
without  its  thorns,  but  which  also  shows  that  truth  in 
the  end  only  gains  wider  recognition  by  encountering 
opposition.^ 

Dr.  H.  B.  Wilbur  little  thought,  when,  in  a  meeting 
of  the  New  York  State  Teachers'  Association  held  at 
Rochester  in  1863,  he  denounced  the  Oswego  novelties, 
that  his  name  was  to  designate,  in  the  history  of  the 
Oswego  Idea,  one  of  the  chief  agents  in  securing  b,  na- 
tional official  indorsement  still  more  complete  and  faa- 
reaching  than  the  school  had  yet  received.  And  yet 
such  was  the  game  fate  played  him ;  for  the  next  year 
at  the  meeting  of  the  National  Educational  Association, 
upon  his  delivering  a  similar  invective,  that  body  ap- 
pointed a  committee  of  distinguished  educators  to  make 
a  thorough  examination  of  the  system  which  could  in- 
spire such  spirited  censure.  On  the  committee  were 
Professor  S.  S.  Greene,  Professor  in  Brown  University; 

1  Oswego  System  of  Instruction,  by  Dr.  H.  B.  Wilbur,  before  the 
National  Educational  Association.  Published  in  Barnard's  American 
Journal  of  Education,  vol.  xv.  (1865),  p.  189. 


THE   SPREAD  OF  THE   OSWEGO  IDEA.  33 

J.  L.  Pickard,  Superintendent  of  Chicago  schools ;  J.  D. 
Philbrick,  Superintendent  of  Boston  schools ;  David  N. 
Camp,  State  Superintendent  of  schools  in  Connecticut ; 
R.  Edwards,  President  of  the  State  Normal  School, 
Normal,  111. ;  C.  L.  Pennell,  St.  Louis,  Mo. ;  and  Barnas 
Sears,  D.D.,  of  Providence,  R.I.  On  behalf  of  the  com- 
mittee. Professor  Greene  spent  a  week  at  Oswego,  and 
in  1865  read  a  notable  report  before  the  Harrisburg 
meeting  of  the  Association,  which  was  published  by  the 
Association  in  a  pamphlet  of  thirty-one  pages.  It  is  to 
be  reckoned  as  the  second  great  document  in  the  history 
of  the  new  education  in  this  country.  It  was  listened 
to,  of  course,  by  educational  leaders  from  all  sections  of 
the  country.  The  report  is  fundamental  and  philosoph- 
ical, and  forms  a  remarkably  clear  exposition  of  the 
mental  facts  upon  which  the  new  education  is  based. 
It  was  the  proper  antidote  for  the  kind  of  destructive 
criticism  indulged  in  by  Dr.  Wilbur. 

The  committee  set  before  itself  three  problems  :  — 

1.  What  place  do  external  objects  hold  in  the  acqui- 
sition of  knowledge  ?  .  Are  they  the  exclusive  source  of 
our  knowledge  ? 

2.  So  far  as  our  knowledge  is  obtained  from  external 
objects  as  .a  source,  how  far  can  any  educational  pro- 
cesses facilitate  the  acquisition  of  it? 

3.  Are  the  measures  adopted  at  Oswego  in  accord- 
ance with  the  general  principles  resulting  from  these 
inquiries  ? 

The  nature  of  the  first  two  questions  necessitated  a 


34  THE   OSWEGO   NORMAL   SCHOOL. 

large  part  of  the  report  being  given  over  to  philosophi- 
cal discussion  concerning  the  validity  of  the  Pestalozzian 
principles.  This  discussion  performed  the  important 
service  of  scattering  those  metaphysical  doubts  which 
arise  naturally  when  a  new  system  of  thought  is  pre- 
sented to  the  mind.  It  also  gave  primary  methods  a 
more  dignified  aspect,  because  they  were  now  seen  by 
educators  at  large  to  be  based  on  thoroughly  sound 
philosophical  principles,  and  to  be  advocated  by  men 
of  unquestioned  standing  in  the  educational  world. 
Two  extracts  from  the  report  must  suffice  to  show  its 
nature. 

"  Let  us  now  commence  at  the  period  when  it  is  proper 
for  a  child  to  enter  school.  What  is  to  engross  his  atten- 
tion now  ?  In  any  system  of  teaching,  all  concede  that 
one  of  his  first  employments  should  be  to  learn  the  new 
language,  the  language  of  printed  symbols,  addressed 
not  to  the  ear,  but  to  the  eye.  And  here  commence  the 
most  divergent  paths.  The  more  common  method  is  to 
drop  entirely  all  that  has  hitherto  occupied  the  child's 
attention,  present  him  with  the  alphabet,  point  out  the 
letters,  and  bid  him  echo  their  names  in  response  to  the 
teacher's  voice.  By  far  the  greatest  portion  of  his  time 
is  passed  in  a  species  of  confinement  and  inactivity  which 
ill  comports  with  his  former  restless  habits.  Usually 
occupied  in  his  school-work  but  twice,  and  then  for 
a  few  moments  only,  during  each  session,  he  advances 
from  necessity  slowly ;  and  this  imprisonment  becomes 
irksome  and  offensive.     To  one  who  is  not  blinded  by 


THE  SPREAD  OP  THE  OSWEGO  IDEA.       35 

this  custom,  which  has  the  sanction  of  a  remote  antiq- 
uity, the  inquiry  naturally  forces  itself  upon  his  atten- 
tion, Is  all  this  necessary?  Must  the  child  because 
he  is  learning  a  new  language  forget  the  old  ?  May  he 
not  be  allowed  to  speak  at  times,  even  in  school,  and 
utter  the  vital  thoughts  that  once  filled  his  mind  with 
delight?  May  he  not  have  some  occupation  that  shall 
not  only  satisfy  the  restless  activities  of  his  nature,  but 
also  shall  gratify  his  earnest  desire  for  knowledge? 
Must  he  be  made  to  feel  that  the  ne\Y  language  of 
printed  letters  has  no  relation  to  the  old?  Does  he 
reach  the  goal  of  his  school-work,  as  too  often  seems 
the  case,  when  he  can  pronounce  words  by  looking  at 
their  printed  forms  ?  Why  not  recognize  in  the  printed 
word  the  same  vital  connection  between  the  word  and 
the  thought  as  before?  Why  not  follow  the  dictates 
of  a  sound  philosophy,  the  simple  suggestions  of  com- 
mon sense,  and  recognize  the  fact  that  the  child  comes 
fiesh  from  the  school  of  Nature,  where  actual  scenes 
and  real  objects  have  engrossed  his  whole  attention,  and 
have  been  the  source  of  all  that  have  made  his  life  so 
happy  ?  If  so,  then  why  not  let  him  draw  freely  from 
this  source,  while  learning  to  read,  nay,  as  far  as  pos- 
sible, make  the  very  act  of  learning  to  read  tributary  to 
the  same  end,  and  at  the  earliest  possible  time  make 
it  appear  that  the  new  acquisition  is  but  a  delightful 
ally  of  his  present  power  to  speak?  This  transition 
from  his  free  and  happy  life  at  home  to  the  confine- 
ment of  the  schoolroom  will  be  less  painful  to  him,  and 


36  THE  OSWEGO  NOKMAL   SCHOOL. 

at  the  same  time  it  will  be  apparent  that  the  school  is 
not  a  place  to  check,  but  to  encourage,  investigation. 

"  Such  inquiries  as  these  have  occupied  the  minds  of 
intelligent  educator  who  have  ventured  to  question  the 
wisdom  of  past  methods.  And  they  have  led  to  the  in- 
troduction of  objects  familiar  and  interesting. 

"  We  come  now  to  the  final  question :  Does  the  plan 
pursued  at  Oswego  conform  to  these  general  principles  ? 

"  We  answer  unhesitatingly  —  in  the  main  it  does." 

The  report  then  goes  on  to  describe  at  length  the 
Oswego  system  as  applied  in  the  Oswego  graded  schools 
and  in  the  six  grades  of  the  Practice  School.  It  denom- 
inates the  system  of  criticisms  by  special  critic-teachers, 
the  Observation-lessons  and  reports,  as  obviously  supe- 
rior to  that  of  any  other  for  Normal  training.  The  report 
is  discriminating,  and  does  not  hesitate  to  point  out  occa- 
sional weaknesses,  but  after  doing  so  concludes :  — 

"  These,  however,  at  most  were  but  spots  on  the  face 
of  the  sun.  The  whole  plan  was  admirable  in  theory 
and  practice."  ^ 

The  vindication  was  complete.  The  report  was  given 
wide  circulation;  and  from  this  time  on  the  Oswego 
teachers  and  graduates  found  themselves,  in  response  to 
many  demands,  enthusiastic  propagandists  of  the  new 
impulse,  especially  in  the  Western  States.  This  impulse 
took  on  definite  form  in  at  least  three  directions.     The 


1  Very  full  and  representative  extracts  are  made  from  this  report  in 
Gordy's  Rise  and  Growth  of  Normal  Schools,  Bureau  of  Education,  Cir- 
cular No.  8,  1891. 


THE  SPREAD   OF   THE   OSWEGO   IDEA.  37 

first  was  the  radical  change  in  (1)  subject-matter,  (2) 
methods,  (3)  and  spirit,  which  occurred  in  the  instruction 
given  in  elementary  schools.  In  regard  to  subject-matter, 
in  the  place  of  the  narrow  gauged  "  three  R's,"  Oswego 
put  a  curriculum,  embracing  the  "  three  R's  "  it  is  true, 
but  containing  besides  the  wealth  of  work  with  Nature, 
the  study  of  plants,  animals,  soil,  minerals,  the  air  we 
breathe  and  the  water  we  drink,  the  color  exercises  and 
form  studies,  the  manual  training  and  physical  culture, 
which  form  the  main  features  of  the  progressive  public 
schools  all  over  the  land  to-day.  The  objective  method 
in  all  of  these  subjects  took  the  place  of  humdrum  text- 
book drill ;  and  lessons  were  presented  so  as  to  secure 
the  child's  spontaneous  interest,  and  allow  for  his  spon- 
taneous expression.  Every  step  taken  was  carefully 
gauged  to  childhood's  nature.  The  teacher  tried  to  see 
things  through  the  child's  eyes ;  the  centre  of  gravity 
in  the  Avorld  of  instruction  was  transferred  from  the 
teacher's  personality  to  that  of  the  child's ;  so  not  only 
the  subject-matter,  but  the  method  and  spirit,  of  all  ele- 
mentary instruction  was  vitally  changed  for  the  better 
in  all  schools  touched  by  Oswego  influence. 

The  second  noteworthy  phase  of  Oswego  influence 
was  its  effect  in  recasting  the  plan  of  organization  and 
methods  taught  in  the  existing  State  Normal  Schools. 
What  were  vague  and  transient  experiments  now  be- 
came a  settled  and  fortified  system ;  the  great  thing  dis- 
covered here  was,  that  there  was  something  to  teach  in 
the  line  of  rational  methods,  something  distinctively 

53789 


38  THE   OSWEGO   NORMAL   SCHOOL. 

devolving  upon  Normal-school  men  to  work  out.  The 
practice-schools  now  became  indispensable  laboratories ; 
the  plan  of  surrendering  separate  rooms  and  classes  to 
the  complete  control  of  the  teachers-in-training ;  of  con- 
stant private  and  class-criticism  of  her  work  in  the  clear 
light  of  definite  principles ;  the  organization  of  the  for- 
mal-school curriculum  so  as  to  make  the  last  year  dis- 
tinctly professional,  the  first  part  of  it  given  up  to 
discussions  of  educational  theory  and  history,  the  last 
part  to  teaching  in  the  school  of  practice  ;  this  revivify- 
ing of  old  forms  by  new  infusions  into  the  then  existing 
Normal  Schools  was  Oswego's  work  for  the  Normal 
Schools  of  America.  The  new  State  Normals,  which 
followed  so  quickly  and  so  thickly  in  the  wake  of  the 
Oswego  demonstration,  were  all  formed  on  the  Oswego 
plan,  and,  as  will  be  shown  later,  by  Oswego  graduates. 
The  third  distinctive  result  of  Oswego  influence  was 
the  establishment  of .  City  Normal  and  Training-Sehooh 
in  many  cities  of  the  country,  on  the  Oswego  plan,  by 
Oswego  graduates.  The  way  in  which  these  important 
results  were  brought  about  will  form  the  subject  of  the 
next  chapter. 


MATILDA  S.   COOPER 
(Mrs.  I.  B.  Poucher). 


CHAPTER  IV. 

APPUCATION   OP   THE    OSW^EGO   IDEA   IN   NORMAL 
SCHOOLS. 

It  is  impracticable  to  trace  separately  the  lines  of 
Oswego  influence  mentioned  at  the  close  of  the  last 
chapter.  They  were  stated  individually  for  the  sake  of 
clearness,  but  in  practice  the  three  phases  went  together 
and  produced  the  change  in  form  and  spirit  of  instruc- 
tion known  as  the  Oswego  System.  To  some  extent, 
however,  the  effect  of  the  new  methods  upon  the  Nor- 
mal Schools  of  the  country  lends  itself  to  separate 
treatment.  Counting  all  schools  bearing  the  name 
"Normal,"  we  may  say  that  there  were  some  twenty 
Normal  Schools  in  this  country  in  1860,  of  which  only 
about  one-half  that  number  deserved  that  distinctive 
title.  During  the  next  decade  this  number  was  in- 
creased to  nearly  one  hundred,^  as  against  the  twenty 
established  during  the  two  decades  preceding  1860 ; 
and  these  latter  were,  moreover,  in  much  greater  per- 
centage, bona  fide  Normal  Schools.  Eighteen  of  these 
bona  fide  Normal  Schools  were  set  up  west  of  the  Alle- 

1  One  hundred  and  fourteen  are  reported  in  Commissioner's  Report 
for  1871.  Several  of  these,  however,  were  departments  in  other  schools, 
and  some  few  others  were  short-lived,  private  enterprises. 

39 


40  THE   OSWEGO    NORMAL  SCHOOL. 

ghanies,!  eleven  being  State  Normal  Schools  and  seven 
public,  city  Normal  and  Training-Schools.  Five  of  these 
were  in  the  cities  of  Davenport  (Iowa),  Indianapolis, 
Fort  Wayne,  Cincinnati,  and  Dayton.  These,  it  will  be 
shown,  were  with  scarcely  an  exception  organized  by 
Oswego  graduates. 

In  1895  it  was  estimated  that  the  number  of  Normal 
Schools  of  all  classes  had  increased  to  three  hundred 
and  fifty-six,  —  one  hundred  and  fifty -five  of  them  being 
public  Normal  Schools,  —  while  the  number  of  gradu- 
ates from  all  institutions  offering  training-courses  for 
teachers  was  estimated  at  twelve  thousand.^  Moreover, 
the  Normal  idea  has  at  last  won  recognition  from  the 
universities  and  colleges ;  and  in  1895  six  thousand, 
four  hundred  and  two  students  were  taking  pedagogical 
training  in  one  hundred  universities  and  colleges. 

It  is  evident  that  among  these  numerous  centres  of 
pedagogical  progress,  no  one  institution  could  maintain 
the  somewhat  exclusive  supremacy  that  Oswego  en- 
joyed during  its  first  two  decades.  It  will  be  the  pur- 
pose of  this  chapter  to  show  to  some  extent  the  basis 
upon  which  that  supremacy  rested,  by  exhibiting  the 
influence  of  Oswego  upon  the  Normal  Schools  of  the 
country  so  far  as  that  influence  can  be  traced  in  the  di- 
rect work  of  Oswego  graduates  in  these  schools. 

It  is  unfortunate  for  such  attempts  to  trace  influence 
that  we  must  confine  ourselves  to  this  direct  method. 

1  Historical  Sketches,  p.  66. 

2  U.  S.  Commissioner  of  Education.    Report  for  1894-95. 


THE   OSWEGO   IDEA  IN   NORMAL   SCHOOLS.  41 

The  indirect  effects  elude  our  search.  It  would  be 
very  interesting  to  show  how  many  schools  had  been 
modified,  how  many  ideals  changed,  how  many  impulses 
started,  by  individuals  and  groups  of  individuals  merely 
having  read  of  Oswego's  work  through  the  various  re- 
ports published  concerning  it,  or  from  having  heard  ad- 
dresses from  Oswego  graduates  and  teachers  who  were 
in  popular  demand  as  platform  speakers  in  many  State 
and  national  gatherings  of  teachers.  A  very  good 
example  of  this  indirect  influence  is  the  change  which 
school  text-books  have  undergone  in  the  last  thirty  years 
in  the  direction  of  the  Oswego  reforms.  For  not  only 
have  Oswego  graduates  themselves  done  their  share  of 
producing  better  text-books,  but  men  who  were  never  in 
direct  contact  with  the  Oswego  methods  have  furnished 
books  in  response  to  the  demands  created  by  those 
methods.  But  it  is  manifestly  a  hopeless  task  to  trace 
any  of  these  indirect  influences.  Such  intangible  im- 
pulses lose  themselves  in  the  host  of  influences  that 
operate  in  the  educational  world ;  for  while  it  will  be 
clear  that  to  Oswego  is  due  the  honor  of  giving  a  defi- 
nite start  and  momentum  to  these  impulses  in  this 
country,  it  is  doubtless  true  that  the  air  was  full  of  the 
spirit  of  reform ;  and  a  decisive  movement  having  once 
started,  there  were,  of  course,  men  and  women  who  en- 
tered into  the  new  truths  independently  of  any  con- 
scious Oswego  influence. 

Confining  ourselves  then,  as  we  must  for  purposes  of 
demonstration,  to  the  direct  work  of  Oswego  graduates 


42  THE  OSWEGO   NORMAL   SCHOOL. 

in  the  Normal  School,  we  find  first,  that  the  New  York 
State  Normal  Schools  were  very  promptly  and  effec- 
tively brought  into  line  by  Oswego's  graduates. 

An  Act  passed  in  1866,  formally  making  the  Oswego 
institution  a  State  Normal  School,^  provided  for  six 
Normal  Schools.  In  a  paper  ^  read  at  the  twenty-fifth 
anniversary  of  the  Oswego  Normal  School  (18ft), 
Professor  Kriisi  reported  that:  — 

"  The  Fredonia  (N.Y.)  State  Normal  and  Training-School  at 
one  time  took  nearly  its  entire  corps  of  teachers  from  Oswego, 
Dr.  Armstrong,  the  principal,  having  been  teacher  here  (Oswego 
Normal).  The  State  Normal  and  Training-Schools  of  Brockport, 
Potsdam,  Genesee,  Buffalo,  Cortland,  and  New  Paltz,  have  been 
organized  on  the  same  plan,  and  each  has  employed  one  or  more 
graduates  of  the  Oswego  School  as  teachers  of  methods  and  for 
general  training-work.  The  Oswego  school  may  justly  claim  the 
credit,  which  is  cheerfully  accorded  to  her  on  every  hand,  of  hav- 
ing laid  the  foundation  and  paved  the  way  for  the  establishment 
of  all  the  newer  Normal  and  Training-Schools  of  the  State." 

Another  authority  ^  indorses  and  broadens  this  claim 
in  the  following  words :  — 

"  All  the  State  Normal  Schools  excepting  the  one  at  Albany  * 

1  The  Oswego  school  became  virtually  a  State  Normal  School  in 
March,  1863,  when  the  Legislature  passed  an  Act  appropriating  S3,000 
for  its  support. 

2  "  History  of  the  (Oswego)  Normal  School,"  by  Herman  Kriisi,  pub- 
lished in  Historical  Sketches  of  the  State  Normal  and  Training-School, 
Oswego,  N.Y. 

8  Professor  J.  P.  Gordy,  in  Rise  and  Growth  of  Normal  Schools. 

*  In  a  foot-note  Professor  Gordy  added  that  the  Albany  Normal  School 
was  then  (1890)  about  to  incorporate  the  Oswego  plan  into  its  profes- 
sional work. 


THE   OSWEGO  IDEA   IN   NORMAL   SCHOOLS.  43 

have  been  organized  on  the  Oswego  plan.  Normal  College  in 
Xew  York  City  was  organized  on  the  same  plan  with  Oswego 
graduates  to  do  the  work  in  methods  and  criticism  .  .  .  and 
Oswego  graduates  were  invited  to  organize  training-schools  in 
Rochester,  Syracuse,  and  Malone,  N.  Y." 

Dr.  A.  D.  Mayo,  in  a  classic  address  delivered  at  Os- 
wego in  1886,  said :  — 

"  But  outside  your  own  limits,  your  work  has  been  greatly 
magnified  in  New  York.  Half  a  dozen  new  State  schools  have 
been  established  since  the  day  when  I  used  to  drop  into  the  first 
Normal  in  Albany ;  and  all  these  have  been  organized  according 
to  your  plan  and  largely  set  in  motion  by  your  graduates.  If  I 
am  rightly  informed,  your  vigorous  institute  system  is  working 
on  the  same  lines ;  while  the  great  city  Normal  Schools  of  New 
York  and  Brooklyn,  with  numerous  local  training-schools  and  the 
summer  assemblies  at  Chautauqua  and  elsewhere  are  all  but  rep- 
etitions and  applications  of  the  new  primary  education  inaugu- 
rated here  twenty-five  years  ago.  In  saying  this,  I  would  do  full 
justice  to  the  many  celebrated  teachers  of  New  York  who  have 
never  been  connected  with  these  institutions.  But  whatever  may 
be  claimed  concerning  priority  of  thought,  we  must  certainly  look 
to  Oswego  as  the  earliest  and  most  successful  embodiment  of  this 
great  movement,  which  in  a  quarter  of  a  century  has  revolution- 
ized the  primary  instruction  of  the  country." 

In  1867  Dr.  Sheldon  was  offered  the  principalship  of 
the  Albany  Normal,  and  in  the  same  year  the  charge  of 
the  Pedagogical  Department  in  the  University  of  Mis- 
souri, but  declined  because  he  feared  to  jeopardize  the 
growing  interests  of  the  school  which  was  to  be  the 
monument  of  his  life's  work,  and  of  which  he  has  been 
the  honored  head  for  thirty-six  years. 


44  THE   OSWEGO   NORMAL   SCHOOL. 

There  is  abundant  evidence  at  hand  to  show  that  this 
process  which  went  on  so  efficiently  in  the  Normal  Schools 
of  New  York  State  was  operative  in  like  manner  in  many 
other  States,  east  and  west.  New  England,  the  birth- 
place of  the  Normal  School  and  of  nearly  all  other 
phases  of  educational  progress  in  this  country,  was  not 
too  proud  to  be  taught  by  its  original  western  neighbor. 
At  the  time  of  Oswego's  birth,  New  England  was  the 
fortunate  possessor  of  five  Normal  Schools,  four  in  Mass- 
achusetts and  one  in  Connecticut.  Most  of  these  insti- 
tutions were  pioneers  in  the  cause  of  special  training 
for  teachers.  To  the  measure  of  success  they  achieved 
was  due  the  successful  transplanting  from  Prussia  of 
the  Normal  School  idea  in  this  country.  The  high  char- 
acter of  their  work  brought  dignity  to  the  profession, 
and  the  superior  quality  of  the  work  done  by  the  teach- 
ers they  sent  out  all  over  New  England  demonstrated 
to  the  friends  of  education  that  there  was  a  profitable 
realm  —  namely,  theory  and  practice  of  teaching  — which 
was  yet  to  be  worked  for  its  best  fruits.  These  early 
Normal  Schools  mapped  out  the  territory,  made  some 
earnest  explorations  around  its  edges  with  now  and 
then  a  dash  into  the  interior,  frequently  exhibiting,  Co- 
lumbus-like, before  the  eyes  of  a  delighted  populace  speci- 
men-treasures from  the  great  unknown  wealth  within. 
Thus,  all  of  them  forced  a  higher  scholarship  upon  New 
England  teachers, —  indeed,  one  of  their  graduates  who 
joined  the  pilgrimage  to  the  Oswego  Mecca  in  1862  has 
recently  expressed  to  me  her  utter  surprise  at  finding 


THE   OSWEGO   IDEA   IN   NORMAL   SCHOOLS.  45 

teachers  taking  part  in  the  Oswego  work  who  could 
boast  only  of  a  common  school  education.^ 

These  New  England  Normals  did  pioneer  work  also 
in  the  important  matter  of  co-education,  for  they  ad- 
mitted women  at  the  outset  to  all  the  privileges  of  the 
schools,  and  demonstrated  the  peculiar  value  of  woman 
in  the  education  of  children. 

The  failings  of  the  New  England  Normal  have  al- 
ready been  pointed  out  in  the  first  chapter  of  this  sketch. 
When  all  is  said,  it  remains  that  these  schools  were 
conservatives,  and  contented  themselves  with  perfecting 
a  pedagogy  which  rested  upon  principles,  many  of  them 
true  enough,  but  still  fragmentary,  unorganized,  and 
indissolubly  linked  to  conventional  applications.  That 
New  England  in  time  saw  this,  the  following  extract 
from  Dr.  Mayo's  address  on  "  The  Normal  School  in 
America,"  will  show.  After  paying  a  deserved  tribute 
to  the  pioneer  work  of  the  New  England  Normal,  he 
continued: — 


1  Relative  to  the  scholarship  required  by  Oswego  of  its  students,  this 
statement  is  found  on  p.  73  of  Circular  No.  8,  issued  by  the  Bureau  of 
Education :  — 

"  At  the  outset,  as  we  have  seen,  the  school  was  organized  as  a  strictly 
professional  school.  Candidates  for  admission  were  required  to  have 
pursued  a  course  of  study  equal  in  thoroughness  and  extent  to  that  pur- 
sued in  the  best  high  schools  of  the  State.  But  the  faculty  of  Oswego 
soon  discovered  that  the  knowledge  of  such  students  was  not  sufficiently 
thorough,  or  at  least  that  a  sufficient  number  of  pupils,  with  a  suffi- 
ciently thorough  preparation,  could  not  be  found  to  fill  the  school  on 
that  plan.  Accordingly,  in  1865,  it  was  decided  to  add  a  course  of  study 
in  the  English  branches  to  the  more  strictly  professional  work.  In  1867 
the  ancient  and  modern  languages  were  added." 


46  THE  OSWEGO   NORMAL  SCHOOL. 

«<But  there  was  yet  a  great  step  forward  to  be  taken.  The 
spirit  of  the  college  and  academy  still  brooded  over  the  New 
Normal  School.  Its  leading  teachers  were  college  graduates,  and 
still  believed  with  a  mighty  faith  in  the  efficacy  of  exclusive  lec- 
turing and  class-room  instruction.  Their  pupils  were  generally 
very  young  people,  with  only  the  crude  knowledge  gained  in  the 
country  schools ;  and  two  years  seemed  quite  too  short  a  time  to 
stack  them  with  useful  knowledge,  and  give  them  an  outfit  in 
methods  and  rules  for  their  coming  work.  Hence  with  few  excep- 
tions the  practice-school  was  ignored,  and  at  best,  a  system  of 
class-recitation,  with  occasional  observation  of  school-work  and 
lesson-giving  used  in  its  place.  The  senseless  objection  of  ignorant 
parents,  and  stubborn  opposition  of  jealous  schoolmasters,  often 
prevented  the  attempt  to  secure  a  great  public  school  for  observa- 
tion and  practice  under  experts.  . 

"  This  has  turned  out  the  one  serious  defect  of  the  New  England 
State  Normal.  .  .  .  For  this  reason  a  few  years  of  good  primary 
school-keeping  in  Quincy  Mass.,  by  that  eminent  genius  for  pri- 
mary instruction.  Colonel  Parker,  ten  years  ago,  so  amazed  certain 
eminent  scholars  and  publicists  of  that  locality,  that  the  work 
was  widely  heralded  as  a  discovery,  and  the  <  Quincy  System,' 
was  elaborately  written  up  throughthe  land."  ^ 

"  I  shall  not  soon  forget  my  first  visit  to  the  Boston  Training- 
School  of  fifteen  years  ago,  where  one  of  the  most  accomplished 

1  Professor  William  F.  Phelps,  late  principal  of  the  Winona,  Minn., 
State  Normal  School,  in  a  recent  letter,  called  my  attention  to  the  fact 
that  twelve  years  before  Colonel  Parker  did  his  excellent  work  at  Quincy, 
the  Winona  School  was  doing  similar  work  from  Oswego  models.  The 
fact  that  quite  elaborate  "Nature  Studies"  constituted  the  basis  of  the 
expressive  work  at  Oswego  from  the  very  beginning  will  be  clearly  seen 
by  reference  to  Dr.  Sheldon's  Reports  to  the  Board  of  Education  at  Os- 
wego, from  1859  to  1869. 

The  Report  of  the  Committee  of  educators  made  in  1861,  and  the  one 
received  by  the  National  Educational  Association  (1865),  give  special 
notice  to  the  Nature  work  done  at  Oswego. 


THE  OSWEGO  IDEA  IN  NORMAL  SCHOOLS.  47 

of  your  graduates,  after  maoy  days,  had  compelled  the  attention 
of  the  most  self-contained  body  of  public  school  men  in  America. 
Out  of  that  beautiful  school  has  been  developed  a  great  deal  more 
than  we  Yankees  are  accustomed  to  pass  to  the  credit  of  New 
York.  There  is  no  portion  of  the  country  now  more  thoroughly 
alive  with  primary  and  common  school  reform  than  the  more  pro- 
gressive part  of  New  England ;  and  the  best  thing  that  can  be 
said  of  Oswego  is,  that  she  is  only  too  glad  to  gather  in  all  these 
later  fruits,  with  no  offensive  claims  to  her  own  service  in  the 
planting-time  of  twenty  years  ago." 

The  Oswego  graduate  to  whom  Dr.  Mayo  refers 
above  was  Miss  Jennie  Stickney  (now  Mrs.  John  A. 
Lansing),  of  whose  work  Professor  Gordy  writes :  — 

"  Miss  Jennie  Stickney,  a  graduate  of  the  Salem  (Mass.)  State 
Normal  School,  after  completing  the  course  at  Oswego,  was  em- 
ployed by  the  Boston  Board  to  organize  a  city  training-school  on 
the  plan  of  the  Oswego  School,  and  train  their  teachers  in  the 
new  methods.  She  was  for  many  years  the  principal  of  this 
school,  until  it  grew  into  the  present  city  Normal  School,  with 
Dr.  Larkin  Dunton  at  its  head." 

Professor  Gordy  cites  also  the  well-known  Worcester, 
Mass.,  Normal  as  a  New  England  development  from  the 
work  of  Oswego  graduates.  He  says,  "  Miss  Rebecca 
Jones,  a  lady  of  large  experience,  came  from  Worcester, 
Mass.,  to  Oswego,  and  immediately  after  graduation  was 
invited  by  the  Worcester  School  Board  to  organize  a 
training-school  in  that  city  on  the  Oswego  plan,  which 
has  developed  into  the  present  State  Normal  School  of 
national  reputation,  with  Mr.  Russell  as  principal."  He 
also  records  the  fact  that  a  city  training-school  was 


48  THE  OSWEGO   NORMAL  SCHOOL. 

organized  in  Lewiston,  Me.,  by  another  Oswego  gradu- 
ate, Miss  Pond.  The  training-school  at  Portland,  Me., 
also  was  organized  by  an  Oswego  graduate. 

Miss  Stickney  is  more  widely  known  through  her 
text-books  in  Language  and  Reading  than  through 
her  work  at  the  Boston  Normal.^  These  text-books  have 
enjoyed  a  wide  and  well-merited  popularity,  and  are  all 
excellent  examples  of  one  way  in  which  the  Oswego 
principles  have  become  disseminated  throughout  the 
land.  A  new  State  Normal  School  has  just  been  opened 
at  Hyannis,  Mass. ;  and  Mr.  W.  A.  Baldwin,  an  Oswego 
graduate,  has  been  called  upon  to  become  its  principal, 
and  to  organize  it  upon  the  Oswego  plan. 

An  Oswego  graduate  is  teaching  in  the  Springfield 
Training-school  at  North  Adams. 

1  The  Boston  Normal  was  one  of  the  first  of  the  new  type  of  City 
Normal  and  Training-schools  set  afoot  in  various  parts  of  the  country  by 
Oswego  graduates.  A  recent  editorial  in  an  educational  magazine  throws 
considerable  light  upon  the  origin  and  the  need  of  the  City  Training- 
School :  — 

"  One  of  the  decided  superiorities  of  the  New  York  public  school  sys- 
tem was  the  new  departure  in  methods  of  instruction  at  the  Oswego 
State  Normal  School,  some  five  and  twenty  years  ago.  And  perhaps  the 
most  valuable  feature  was  the  organization  of  the  City  Training-School 
for  teachers.  At  that  date  the  State  Normal  Schools  everywhere  were 
thronged  with  pupils,  largely  from  the  rural  districts  and  villages,  whose 
academic  preparation  was  of  the  most  elementary  sort.  The  emphasis 
of  instruction  was  of  necessity  on  the  academic  side,  and  thousands  of 
these  graduates  went  forth  with  a  scholarship  inferior  to  that  of  the 
higher  grammar-grades  in  the  schools  of  every  considerable  City.  It 
was  largely  because  of  this  lack  of  reliable  scholarship  that  the  training 
in  Pedagogy  in  the  State  Normal  was  so  ineffective ;  for  until  one  knows 
what  to  teach,  a  method  is  practically  of  little  importance.  Even  so 
late  as  1860,  only  one  State  Normal  School  in  Massachusetts  had  a  prac- 


THE  OSWEGO   IDEA   IN   NORMAL  SCHOOLS.  49 

Miss  Sarah  J.  Walter,  for  many  years  the  able  head 
of  the  School  of  Practice  at  Oswego,  is  now  at  the  head 
of  a  similar  department  in  the  Normal  School  at  Wil- 
limantic,  Conn.  An  Oswego  graduate  is  also  at  work 
in  the  New  Britain  Normal  School. 

The  State  Normal  School  at  Trenton  N.  J.,  one  of 
the  best  of  those  founded  before  the  Oswego  Normal, 
was  one  of  the  first  to  investigate  the  new  methods. 
Its  able  principal  was  Professor  Wm.  F.  Phelps,  whose 
report  of  the  work  at  Oswego  has  been  already  referred 
to.  After  his  visit,  Professor  Phelps  immediately  sent 
one  of  his  teachers  to  Oswego  to  learn  the  new  system. 
Of  the  changes  effected  by  this  one  teacher  upon  her 
return,  Professor  Phelps  writes :  — 

"  One  of  the  most  striking  and  valuable  features  of  this  exper- 
iment was  its  suggestiveness.     It  was  an  '  eye  opener ' ;  and  it  at 


tice  department;  and  ten  years  previous  not  half-a-dozen  teachers  in 
the  schools  of  the  city  of  Springfield  were  graduates  of  the  neighboring 
State  Normal  at  Westport.  President  Sheldon  of  Oswego,  followed  by 
the  New  York  State  Normals,  made  it  possible  that  the  improved  meth- 
ods of  instruction  should  be  successfully  worked  in  the  larger  cities  of 
the  Middle  and  Western  States  by  his  admirable  organization  of  the 
city  training-school  especially  for  primary  teachers;  of  which  every 
pupil  should  be  a  graduate  of  the  city  high  school  or  its  equivalent, 
and  for  at  least  one  year  be  under  the  training  of  expert  teachers,  with 
a  large  section  of  the  public  schools  set  apart  for  a  practice  department. 
"  New  England  with  characteristic  independence  very  slowly  followed 
this  lead.  In  several  large  towns,  what  was  called  a  training-school 
was  simply  a  group  of  high-school  graduates,  set  to  teach  in  a  large 
building  on  half  pay,  under  a  master  who  was  expected  to  give  such 
professional  instruction  and  guidance  as  possible  to  his  worn-out  subor- 
dinates."—  Education,  November,  1896. 


60  THE   OSWEGO   NORMAL   SCHOOL. 

once  set  other  teachers  to  thinking  and  studying,  and  the  influ- 
ence of  this  one  partially  trained  teacher  extended  far  beyond  the 
limits  of  her  own  room,  to  the  school  at  large,  and  to  the  public 
schools  of  the  town.  .  .  .  This  experiment,  imperfect  as  it  was, 
led  to  lasting  improvement.  The  new  ideas,  once  finding  a  lodg- 
ment, were  found  to  remain,  and  to  grow  in  influence  and  power ; 
and  the  Normal  School  at  Trenton  to-day  is  in  the  front  rank  of 
institutions  of  its  class  in  respect  to  its  character,  courses,  and 
methods  of  instruction,  and  this  is  largely  due  to  the  impetus 
given  it  at  that  time." 

In  Pennsylvania,  Professor  Gordy  states  that  Os- 
wego graduates  were  invited  to  organize  Training- 
Schools  at  Philadelphia  and  at  Reading. 

The  new  West  was  quickly  responsive  to  the  new 
methods.  It  was  young,  unconventional,  little  tram- 
melled by  old  traditions.  It  was  settled  by  men  who 
grasped  opportunities.  It  had  a  consciousness  that  it 
could  buy  the  best  things  the  East  could  furnish.  It 
was  growing  ambitious  to  possess  a  literature  and  an 
art.  It  was  sensitive  to  remarks  made  about  its  educa- 
tion. It  would  have  teachers  as  good  as  the  best, 
methods  as  modern  as  its  own  life,  —  methods  that  were 
practical,  real,  and  would  yield  quick  results.  These 
characteristics  were  inherent  in  the  Oswego  methods ; 
and  the  West  adopted  them  in  good,  hearty,  Western 
fashion.     Says  Dr.  Mayo :  — 

«  But  I  am  inclined  to  think  no  one  influence  during  the  past 
generation  has  been  so  potent  in  the  Western  common  school- 
room as  the  Oswego  Normal.     "While  whole  sections  of  the  older 


THE  OSWEGO   IDEA  IN  NORMAL  SCHOOLS.  51 

States  have  been  occupied  in  nailing  Normal  sign-boards  on 
country  academies  of  the  old-time  sort,  the  Western  States,  with 
the  single  exception  of  Ohio,  have  established  one  of  the  most 
effective  systems  of  State  Normal  Schools  and  Institutes  in  the 
country.  Ohio  has  perhaps  led  in  the  number  and  importance  of 
her  city  Normal  Schools,  which,  with  the  one  exception  of  the 
admirable  school  at  St.  Louis,  have  led  all  American  cities  in  the 
training  of  teachers.  Every  Normal  School,  as  far  as  I  know, 
State  or  city,  between  Pittsburg  and  San  Francisco,  has  been  or- 
ganized on  the  Oswego  plan  ;  and  hundreds  of  her  graduates  have 
been  at  work  in  them  since  1865."  ^ 

It  is  very  desirable  that  the  particulars  upon  which 
such  generalizations  are  based  be  exhibited  to  the  reader, 
and  this  can  conveniently  be  done  by  tracing  the  labors 
of  Oswego  graduates  in  the  Normal  Schools  of  the  West 
by  States.  The  opinions  of  competent  eye-witnesses  of 
this  peaceful  revolution  will  also  prove  of  some  value 
in  helping  us  to  gain  a  correct  idea  of  what  was  accom- 
plished. 

Miss  Amanda  Funnelle  was  graduated  from  the  class 
of  '62.  She  taught  two  years  in  the  training-school  at 
Oswego,  which  position  she  left  to  take  charge  of  the 
model  primary  department  in  the  State  Normal  School 
at  Albany,  N.Y.,  the  oldest  of  the  New  York  Normal 
Schools.  At  the  end  of  three  years  this  position  was 
given  up  that  she  might  introduce  the  new  methods 
in  the  City  Training-School  at  Indianapolis,  then  just 
organized.      From  here   Miss  Funnelle  was  called  to 

1  "  The  Normal  School  in  America,"  by  A.  D.  Mayo,  in  Historical 
Sketches  oJ*the  State  formal  and  Training-school  at  Oswego,  1886. 


62  THE   OSWEGO   NORMAL   SCHOOL. 

become  the  teacher  of  methods  of  primary  instruction 
in  the  Indiana  State  Normal  School  at  Terre  Haute. 
Here  Miss  Funnelle  put  in  eleven  years  of  work.  Sub- 
sequently she  added  Detroit,  Mich.,  to  her  itinerary, 
where  she  held  the  position  of  principal  teacher  of  the 
Detroit  normal-  and  training-class,  having  for  her  assis- 
tant the  Miss  Scott  who  has  lately  done  such  original 
work  in  the  City  Training-School  of  Detroit.  The  In- 
diana Normal  Schools  in  which  Miss  Funnelle  labored 
have  sent  out  hundreds  of  graduates,  who  have  thus 
taken  the  Oswego  methods  into  every  section  of  the 
State.  President  Smart  of  Purdue  University  thus  re- 
ports the  results  of  his  observation  of  Oswego  influence 
in  Indiana :  —      • 

"  I  am  very  glad  to  give  you  my  opinion  concerning  the  influ- 
ence of  the  Oswego  Normal  School  upon  the  educational  interests 
of  Indiana.  I  have  had  several  Oswego  graduates  working  under 
my  immediate  supervision  for  a  number  of  years,  and  during  my 
term  of  office  as  State  Superintendent  of  Indiana  I  observed  the 
work  of  many  others.  Oswego  graduates  have  been  employed  in 
some  of  our  large  cities  as  superintendents  of  training-schools, 
and  as  teachers  in  other  departments,  and  as  instructors  in  our 
State  Normal  School.  I  am  free  to  say  that  to  the  influence  of 
no  class  of  teachers  are  we  so  much  indebted  as  to  those  who 
have  come  to  us  from  Oswego.  Those  who  are  acquainted  with 
the  work  and  influence  of  the  City  Training-School  of  Indianap- 
olis, of  the  City  Training-School  of  Fort  Wayne,  and  of  the  work 
of  the  training-teachers  in  the  State  Normal  School,  will,  I  am 
sure,  indorse  this  statement."  ^ 

1  Quoted  by  Mrs.  Delia  Lathrop  Williams,  in  an  article  on  "  The 
Influence  of  the  Oswego  State  Normal  School  in  the  West,"  contained 
in  Historical  Sketches  of  the  State  Normal  School  at  Oswego^ 


THE  OSWEGO   IDEA  IN  NORMAL  SCHOOLS.  53 

The  unusual  compliments  bestowed  by  Dr.  Rice  on 
the  Indianapolis  schools  on  his  recent  trip  of  investiga- 
tion have  their  foundation  in  the  good  work  done  by 
Miss  Funnelle  in  the  training-school  of  that  city,  and 
ably  continued  by  Superintendent  L.  H.  Jones,  an 
Oswego  graduate,  now  superintendent  of  the  schools 
of  Cleveland,  Ohio.^ 

Mr.  Jones  was  graduated  from  Oswego  ya  1870,  and 
immediately  responded  to  the  Western  call  in  accepting 
a  position  in  the  State  Normal  School  at  Terre  Haute, 
Ind.  At  the  end  of  a  year's  work  in  the  Normal  at 
Terre  Haute,  Mr.  Jones  spent  one  year  in  the  Indian- 
apolis High  School,  and  the  next  eight  years  as  princi- 
pal of  the  Normal  Training-School  at  Indianapolis.  Th6 
subsequent  ten  years  were  occupied  as  superintendent 
of  the  schools  of  Indianapolis,  in  which  position  his 
work  attracted  national  attention.  For  many  years  he 
has  been  a  force  in  the  National  Educational  Associa- 
tion, and  was  a  member  of  the  famous  Committee  of 
Fifteen.  Last  year  Superintendent  Jones  was  chosen 
president  of  the  Department  of  Superintendence.  It  is 
easy  to  see  how  through  the  work  of  such  men  and 
women  Oswego  ideas  grew  into  dominant  forces,  and 
her  methods  became  common  property  in  the  Western 
States. 

No  State  has  been  more  thoroughly  saturated  with 
the  Oswego  innovations  than  Ohio.  The  chief  educa- 
tional centres  of  Ohio  to-day  are  those  in  which  Oswego 

1  Forum,  December,  1892. 


64  THE  OSWEGO   NORMAL  SCHOOL. 

influence  early  became  the  controlling  element.  Miss 
Sarah  Duganne,  an  Oswego  graduate  of  the  class  of  '64, 
accepted  the  principalship  of  the  Cincinnati  Training- 
School.  In  1886  it  had  sent  out  eight  hundred  and 
twenty  young  women  imbued  with  the  Oswego  spirit, 
who  have  honeycombed  the  schools  of  Ohio.  The  Day- 
ton Normal  School  placed  at  its  head  a  woman  trained 
in  Oswego  principles  at  the  Cincinnati  Normal,  and  be- 
tween the  years  1869  and  1885  it  had  sent  forth  one 
hundred  and  ninety-nine  young  women  to  join  forces 
with  the  eight  hundred  and  twenty  from  the  Cincinnati 
Normal.  Cleveland  has  a  flourishing  training-school 
as  a  result  of  the  general  movement  set  afoot  by  Oswego 
graduates.  During  its  first  ten  years  it  sent  out  more 
than  five  hundred  teachers.  The  able  superintendent 
of  the  Cleveland  schools  is  an  Oswego  graduate.  San- 
dusky organized  a  training-school  on  the  Oswego  plan, 
and  the  training-school  at  Columbus  was  started  with 
an  Oswego  graduate  at  its  head. 

Dr.  E.  E.  White,  one  of  the  foremost  educators  of 
the  last  quarter  century,  thus  speaks  of  Oswego  influ- 
ence in  Ohio  and  Indiana :  — 

«I  take  pleasure  in  bearing  testimony  to  the  fact  that  this 
school  exerted  in  its  early  history  marked  influence  on  primary 
instruction  in  Ohio  and  Indiana,  a  more  effective  influence  than 
all  the  other  Normal  Schools  in  the  country." 

1  Quoted  by  Mrs.  Delia  Lathrop  "Williams  in  her  paper  in  Historical 
Sketches  of  the  State  Normal  and  Training-School,  Oswego,  N.Y. 


THE   OSWEGO   IDEA  IN   NORMAL  SCHOOLS.  65 

And  Dr.  Hancock,  "  a  man  thoroughly  conversant  with 
the  history  of  every  public-school  movement  in  the  Mis- 
sissippi Valley,"  says :  — 

"  I  am  sure  the  Institute  of  1867  in  Cincinnati,  in  which  those 
eminent  teachers  and  Oswegoans,  Dr.  Armstrong,  Professor  Kriisi, 
Miss  Seaver,  Miss  Cooper,  and  Mrs.  Mary  Howe  Smith  took  part, 
marked  an  era  in  the  schools  of  that  city.  They  presented  the 
business  of  teaching  in  a  light  in  which  it  had  not  been  seen  be- 
fore by  the  large  body  of  teachers  there  assembled.  The  spirit 
infused  into  this  body  by  this  new  education  was  the  main  cause 
of  the  establishment  of  the  city  Normal  School,  with  Miss  Sarah 
Duganne,  an  Oswego  graduate,  at  its  head.  She  was  followed  by 
Miss  Delia  A.  Lathrop,  another  Oswego  graduate,  who,  with  the 
assistance  of  four  other  graduates  of  Oswego,  carried  forward  the 
work  for  seven  years.  Here  was  begun  the  great  fight  between 
dynamic  and  mechanic  instruction,  —  a  fight  that  has  been  going  on 
ever  since  with  somewhat  varying  success,  but  on  the  whole  with 
a  sure  gain  of  territory  by  the  first  of  these  belligerent  parties." 

Mrs.  Mary  Howe  Smith  (Pratt),  mentioned  in  the 
quotation  above,  informs  me  that  institutes  similar  to  the 
one  at  Cincinnati  were  held  for  a  succession  of  years  in 
various  parts  of  Ohio  and  Indiana,  and  aroused  immense 
enthusiasm,  resulting  in  an  immediate  increase  in  the 
number  of  applicants  from  Ohio  and  Indiana  for  admis- 
sion to  the  Oswego  school.  Mrs.  Smith  was  in  great 
demand  for  her  clear  expositions  of  the  Oswego  methods, 
and  her  aid  was  solicited  by  Professor  Guyot  of  Prince- 
ton to  apply  the  Pestalozzian  principles  to  his  well- 
known  series  of  geography  text-books. 

Oswego  methods  early  secured  a  foothold  in  Iowa. 


56  THE   OSWEGO  NORMAL   SCHOOL. 

A  Normal  department  had  been  a  prominent  feature  of 
the  University  of  Iowa  since  1857.  The  Report  of  the 
United  States  Commissioner  of  Education  for  1867-08 
calls  attention  to  the  fact  that  Oswego  graduates  had 
reached  that  department.  In  the  same  volume  we  are 
told  of  a  City  Training-School  in  one  of  the  cities  of 
the  State,  that  the  "  instruction  is  similar  to  that  given 
in  the  Elementary  Training-course  at  Oswego."  Of 
Ottumwa,  Iowa,  the  same  report  says,  "  The  superin- 
tendent was  successful  in  obtaining  a  competent  and 
experienced  teacher,  and  the  training-school  was  opened 
in  the  autumn  of  '67.  Miss  Pride,  the  training-teacher 
secured,  was  a  graduate  of  the  Normal  Training-School 
at  Oswego,  N.Y."  In  1862  an  Oswego  graduate,  Miss 
Mary  V.  Lee,  known  as  Dr.  Lee  to  all  Oswego  people, 
in  company  with  Mrs.  Mary  E.  McGonegal,  opened  the 
Davenport,  Iowa,  Training-School  for  teachers,  under 
the  general  direction  of  Superintendent  Kissell.  Dr. 
Lee  was  one  of  the  strongest  personalities  connected 
with  the  spread  of  the  Oswego  movement ;  and  her  work 
in  Iowa,  as  elsewhere,  was  full  of  life  and  suggcstiveness, 
and  created  a  profound  impression  in  that  section. 

Professor  H.  H.  Seeley,  president  of  the  Iowa  State 
Normal  School  at  Cedar  Falls,  writes  me  that  twenty- 
four  years  ago  he  was  a  student  in  the  department  of 
didactics  at  the  State  University,  in  which  the  teacher 
of  methods  was  an  Oswego  graduate.  "  I  therefore  ob- 
tained from  her,"  says  he,  "more  or  less  of  the  first 
information  and  scientific  conception  of  methods  and 
plans  in  elementary  education." 


THE   OSWEGO   IDEA   IN   NORMAL   SCHOOLS.  57 

"  You  can  set  Minnesota  down  as  a  Normal  State  ac- 
cording to  the  standard  established  at  Oswego."     These 
few  words  of  Professor  William  F.  Phelps  tell  the  story  ^-\ 
of  Oswego's  remarkable  achievement  in  Minnesota. 

The  Winona,  Minn.,  Normal  School,  originally  pro- 
jected in  1860,  was  not  put  on  a  working  basis  until 
1864,  when  President  Phelps  of  the  Trenton  Normal 
School,  and  chairman  of  the  Committee  of  Educators 
at  Oswego  in  1861,  was  invited  to  become  its  president. 
This  he  did  in  radical  fashion.  His  plan  was  to  make 
it  over  completely,  according  to  the  plans  he  had  just 
witnessed  at  Oswego.  Accordingly  he  filled  the  faculty 
immediately  with  Oswego  graduates,  or  teachers  in- 
structed in  the  training-schools  established  by  Oswego 
graduates.  In  the  spring  of  1865  he  called  Dr.  Lee 
from  her  Davenport  work  to  become  his  first  assistant 
at  Winona.     Of  her  work  here  he  speaks  as  follows :  — 

"  Miss  Lee  was  admirably  equipped,  both  by  nature  and  train- 
ing, for  her  responsible  position.  She  had  been  veiy  successful  at 
Davenport,  and  had  turned  out  many  excellent  disciples  of  the 
Oswego  dispensation ;  and  as  the  institution  at  Winona  enlarged 
I  secured  several  other  ladies  from  the  Davenport  school,  .  .  . 
all  of  whom  were  well  fitted  to  illustrate  the  ideas  of  the  new 
education ;  and  the  result  was,  that  we  had  a  second  edition  of 
Oswego  transplanted  to  the  new  State  of  Minnesota." 

The  Winona  Normal  was  the  first  in  the  State,  and 
set  the  standard  for  the  other  four  since  established. 
Professor  Phelps  writes  that  there  are  Oswego  gradu- 


58  THE  OSWEGO  NORMAL   SCHOOL. 

ates  in  all  the  Normals,  and  that  they  have  been  there 
from  the  beginning.  The  training-departments  of  the 
Mankato  and  St.  Cloud  Normals  were  put  in  charge  of 
Oswego  graduates.  Of  the  normal  schools  in  Minne- 
sota, Professor  Phelps  concludes,  — 

"  They  owe  their  strength  and  usefulness  to  the  development 
of  the  methods  taught  at  Oswego,  and  the  public  schools  are  reap- 
ing the  benefits." 

Michigan  was  one  of  the  first  States  to  yield  to  the 
persuasiveness  of  the  Oswego  methods  ;  for  the  first  grad- 
uating class  of  the  Oswego  Normal  (in  1862)  sent  two 
of  its  best  teachers  to  its  schools,  —  Miss  Kate  Davis 
who  went  to  East  Saginaw,  developed  its  Training- 
School,  and  has  worked  chiefly  in  Training-Schools 
since,  and  Miss  Amanda  Funnelle,  whose  work  in 
the  Detroit  Training-School  has  already  been  mentioned. 
Since  then  the  alumni  record  shows,  that,  with  one  ex- 
ception, every  year  for  twenty-five  years  has  furnished 
one  or  more  graduates  to  the  schools  in  various  parts 
of  the  State,  including  the  Training-School  at  Grand 
Rapids.  At  present  Miss  Anna  B.  Herrig,  an  Oswego 
graduate,  is  the  efficient  Superintendent  of  the  Depart- 
ment of  Practice  in  the  newly  established  Central  Mich- 
igan State  Normal  School. 

Michigan's  sister  State,  Wisconsin,  at  a  later  period 
incorporated  Oswego  methods  in  some  of  its  principal 
educational  institutions.  Of  one  way  in  which  this  was 
accomplished,  Professor  William  F.  Phelps  writes :  — 


THE  OSWEGO  IDEA  IN  NORMAL  SCHOOLS.  59 

"In  1876  I  was  called  to  preside  over  one  of  the  Wisconsin 
Normal  Schools.  The  new  methods  had  not  then  any  foothold 
in  that  conservative  State.  In  making  changes  in  the  teaching 
force,  I  drew  upon  Oswego  for  those  progressive  elements  needed 
to  work  a  reform  in  the  school  and  its  antiquated  notions  and 
practices.  The  effect  of  the  introduction  of  those  teachers  was 
revolutionary ;  but  it  introduced  many  salutary  changes  and  im- 
provements, that  have  not  been  lost  upon  the  Normal  School  system 
of  that  Commonwealth." 

Wisconsin  now  has  seven  State  Normal  Schools  or- 
ganized on  the  Oswego  plan,  and  doing  work  of  which 
any  State  might  be  proud.  Miss  Margaret  W.  Morley, 
author  of  those  charming  books,  Songs  of  Life  and  Seed 
Babies^  and  a  former  teacher  at  Oswego,  has  done  some 
especially  good  work  at  the  Milwaukee  Normal  School ; 
so  did  also  Miss  Eleanor  Worthington,  another  Oswego 
graduate.  An  item  in  the  History  of  Education  in 
Wisconsin^  edited  by  Dr.  J.  W.  Stearns,  shows  that  Mrs. 
Anna  Randall  (Diehl)  of  Oswego  was  employed  in  the 
first  faculties  of  both  the  Whitewater  and  Platteville 
Normals  (1868)  as  teacher  of  reading  and  elocution. 

Training  departments  are  still  being  organized  by 
Oswego  graduates  in  these  Northwestern  States.  A 
recent  letter  from  President  Beadle  of  the  new  State 
Normal  School  at  Madison,  S.  Dak.,  gives  in  substance 
the  following  data :  — 

The  school  was  organized  in  1883,  and  proceeded  with  a  faculty 
few  in  numbers  till  the  fall  of  1887,  when  the  force  was  enlarged, 
and  the  following  graduates  from  Oswego  were  appointed  :  — 


60  THE   OSWEGO  NORMAL   SCHOOL. 

M.  Adelaide  Holtox, 

Principal  of  Training-School.    Theory  and  Practice  of  Teaching 

Annie  Klingensmith, 

Drawing,  Critic  Teacher  in  Training-School 

In  1889  was  added  from  Oswego, 

Clara  Holton, 

Critic  Teacher,  Vocal  Music. 

In  1890, 

Harriet  Eastabrooks, 

Critic  Teacher. 

In  1892, 

Anna  B,  Herrig, 

Principal  of  Training-School,  Methods  Critic. 

Emma  E.  Rowe  (Mrs.  Grant  Smith), 

Critic. 

The  next  year  both  these  ladies  resigned,  and  the  fol- 
lowing teachers  from  Oswego  supplied  their  places :  — 

Bernice  M.  Wright, 

Principal  of  Training-School, 

Nellie  Collins, 

Primary  Critic. 

Burgess  Shank, 

Drawing.  Botany,  Zoology,  Physiology. 

Miss  Wright  (now  Mre.  Shank)  and  Mr.  Shank  are 
now  studying  in  Jena,  Germany. 

"  Oswego  has  therefore,"  says  President  Beadle,  "  directly  and 
greatly  influenced  the  whole  life  and  work  of  the  school  in  train- 
ing teachers  and  graduates,  one  hundred  and  fifty  of  whom  are  now 


THE   OSWEGO   IDEA   IN   NOExMAL    SCHOOLS.  61 

teaching  with  great  success  in  this  State,  a  few  of  them  in  other 
States." 

This  school  furnishes  a  good  example  of  the  way  in 
which  most  of  our  Western  Normal  Schools  have  devel- 
oped their  professional  work. 

In  Illinois  the  work  of  Oswego  teachers  has  been 
quite  generally  distributed  among  the  public  schools  of 
the  State.  Among  the  Normal  Schools  it  has  been 
most  notable  in  Colonel  Parker's  school  at  Chicago, 
formerly  the  Cook  County  Normal.  A  member  of 
Oswego's  second  graduating-class  (1863)  taught  seven 
years  in  the  Cook  County  Normal.  Since  then  Colonel 
Parker  has  freely  employed  Oswego  teachers.^  Profes- 
sor H.  H.  Straight  2  and  his  wife,  Mrs.  Emma  Dicker- 
man  Straight,  whose  work  in  Nature  Studies  at  Oswego 
was  most  original,  were  picked  out  from  the  Oswego 
faculty  by  Professor  Parker's  discerning  eye.  Professor 
Parker  calls  them  pioneers  in  the  teaching  of  elementary 
science  to  little  children. 

The  following  Oswego  graduates,  also,  were  captured 
by  Colonel  Parker :  — 

Mr.  George  Fitz,  now  a  professor  at  Harvard;  Mrs. 
Mary  Alling-Aber,  author  of  An  Experiment  in  Educa- 
tion ;  Miss  Eleanor  Worthington  and  Dr.  Marie  Mergler. 
Miss  Emily  J.  Rice,  an  Oswego  graduate,  is  teaching 


1  See  Colonel  Parker's  estimate  of  the  influence  of  the  Oswego  Normal 
School  at  the  close  of  Chap.  II. 

2  Professor  Straight  was  for  a  time  Vice-principal  of  the  Cook  County 
Normal. 


62  THE   OSWEGO   NORMAL    SCHOOL. 

at  present  in  Colonel  Parker's  school.  He  has  recently- 
pronounced  her  "  one  of  the  best  teachers  of  history  and 
literature  in  the  countr}^" 

Oswego  graduates  have  also  labored  in  the  State 
Normal  School  at  Normal,  111.,  and  in  the  training- 
school  at  Oak  Park. 

Chicago  is  now  the  headquarters  of  the  Western 
Alumni  Association  of  Oswego  graduates. 

Evidence  is  not  wanting  that  Missouri  early  learned 
of  Oswego's  work.  At  the  laying  of  the  corner-stone 
of  the  Warrensburg  Normal,  Professor  D.  H.  Crut- 
tenden  of  the  Oswego  Normal  delivered  one  of  the 
addresses.  Reference  to  the  alumni  record  will  show 
that  a  number  of  Oswego  graduates  have  taught  at 
this  Normal  school.  Between  1872  and  1875  Professor 
Straight  and  his  wife,  one  an  Oswego  graduate,  the 
other  a  member  of  its  faculty  soon  after,  were  members 
of  the  faculty  of  this  institution,  then  under  the  prin- 
cipalship  of  James  Johannot.  President  Osborne  writes 
me  that  at  the  present  time  the  mathematical  depart- 
ment of  the  Warrensburg  Normal  is  in  charge  of  Pro^ 
fessor  George  H.  Howe,  an  Oswego  graduate ;  and  a 
recent  addition  to  the  faculty  is  Professor  A.  W.  Nor- 
ton, formerly  in  charge  of  the  Practice  Department  at 
Oswego,  but  more  recently  principal  of  the  State  Nor- 
mal at  Peru,  Nebraska. 

Several  Oswego  graduates  have  been  identified  with 
the  Kirksville  Normal,  among  whom  was  Professor 
Charles  S.  Sheldon,  who  held  for  a  number  of  years  the 


THE   OSWEGO    IDEA   IN   NORMAL   SCHOOLS.  63 

chair  of  Natural  Science,  and  is  now  doing  similar  work 
in  his  father's  school  at  Oswego. 

Nebraska  has  but  one  State  Normal  School,  organized 
in  1867.  Its  professional  work  was  established  on  the 
Oswego  plan,^  and  Oswego  graduates  have  from  time 
to  time  been  called  upon  to  work  in  that  department; 
prominent  among  these  was  Miss  Margaret  K.  Smith, 
who  held  the  chair  of  School  of  Economy  and  Methods 
there.  Three  years  ago  the  principalship  of  the  institu- 
tion was  conferred  upon  a  former  teacher  at  Oswego, 
Professor  A.  W.  Norton,  and  its  professional  work  was 
put  in  charge  of  Miss  Anna  B.  Herrig,  an  Oswego 
graduate;  the  Kindergarten  Department  and  the  De- 
partment of  Science  were  also  put  under  the  guidance 
of  Oswego  graduates. 

In  Kansas,  in  1868,  Oswego  methods  were  intro- 
duced into  the  Leavenworth  Schools  by  Oswego  gradu- 
ates. A  Normal  School  was  established  on  the  Oswego 
plan,  and  for  six  years  sent  out  graduates  imbued  with 
the  Oswego  spirit  into  different  parts  of  the  State.  An 
Oswego  graduate  taught  for  eleven  years  in  the  State 
University  of  Kansas,  at  Lawrence. 

Out  in  New  Mexico,  a  Normal  course  was  established 
in  the  University  of  Mexico  by  an  Oswego  graduate. 

Replies  I  have  recently  received  show  that  as  far 
west  as  Oregon,  Oswego  graduates  are  in  charge  of  the 
Training-Department  in   the    State  Normal  School  at 

1  Circular  of  Information,  No.  8,  1891,  p.  75,  U.  S-  Bureau  of  Educa- 
tion. 


64  THE  OSWEGO   NORMAL   SCHOOL. 

Monmouth.  In  the  new  State  of  Washington  an  Os- 
wego graduate  is  in  charge  of  the  Training-Depart- 
ment of  the  State  Normal  at  Cheney;  and  the  vice- 
president  of  the  school  is  an  Oswego  graduate.  He 
was  recently  tendered  the  principalship  of  the  school, 
but  declined.  I  am  also  informed,  that,  failing  to  find 
Normal  Schools  in  Montana  and  Utah,  Oswego  gradu- 
ates have  invaded  the  State  universities  of  those 
States. 

Oswego  influence  in  California  is  most  strikingly 
manifested  in  the  novel  work  of  Earl  Barnes,  class  of 
'84,  and  Mary  Sheldon  Barnes,  class  of  '69,  both  pro- 
fessors in  Leland  Stanford,  Jr.,  University.  Professor 
Barnes,  because  of  his  valuable  contributions  to  scien- 
tific child  study,  has  been  ranked  next  to  Stanley  Hall, 
the  foremost  investigator  in  our  country  in  his  chosen 
field.  Mrs.  Barnes  is  a  daughter  of  Dr.  Sheldon,  and 
became  generally  known  first  through  her  Studies  in 
General  History,^  in  many  respects  the  most  original 
text-book  of  the  last  quarter  century,  in  which  the 
scientific  method  as  applied  to  the  teaching  of  the 
sciences  at  Oswego  has  found  a  singularly  complete 
ar.d  successful  application.  Since  then,  Mrs.  Barnes 
has  issued  an  American  history  ^  on  the  same  plan, 
which  has  met  with  a  remarkable  success  considering 
the  hard  thinking  which  the  method  requires  of  young 
minds.  Both  Mrs.  Barnes  and  Professor  Earl  Barnes 
are  frequent  contributors  to  educational  literature. 
1  D.  C.  Heath  &  Co.,  Boston. 


THE   OSWEGO   IDEA   IN   NORMAL   SCHOOLS.  65 

Othftr  Oaweg-o  graHnntes  have  done  good  work  for  the 
State  Normal  School  of  San  Jose. 

^Ttthus  seems  reasonably  certain  that  Oswego  influ- 
ence upon  the  Normal  Schools  of  practically  every 
Western  State  and  Territory  has  been  both  direct  and 
powerful.  In  nearly  all  the  cases  cited,  Oswego  gradu- 
ates themselves  have  superintended  the  introduction  of 
the  new  system  in  the  Normal  Schools;  in  other  cases 
these  schools  have  invariably  formed  the  type  for  the 
later  Normal  Schools  which  the  good  work  of  the  earlier 
ones  called  into  existence. 

At  the  South,  for  a  long  time  after  the  war,  the  feel- 
ing between  the  two  sections,  which  had  kept  the  North 
and  South  separate  years  before  the  war,  confined  the 
work  of  Oswego  graduates  almost  entirely  to  the  schools 
for  the  freedmen.  The  Pestalozzian  methods  were  pe- 
culiarly adapted  to  the  awakening  mind  of  a  race  which 
had  been  forced  for  centuries  to  derive  its  ideas  from 
the  concrete,  —  a  race  from  whom  books  and  most  forms 
of  abstract  thinking  had  been  rigorously  removed. 
"From  the  concrete  to  the  abstract,"  was  equivalent 
here  to  that  other  Pestalozzian  maxim,  "  From  the 
known  to  the  unknown."  The  isolated  and  private 
character  of  many  of  the  schools  for  the  negro  at  the 
South  has  made  it  a  difficult  task  to  get  detailed  ac- 
counts of  Oswego's  influence  upon  this  section  of  our 
country.  In  the  decade  succeeding  the  war  these 
schools  were,  with  minor  exceptions,  either  completely 


66  THE   OSWEGO   NORMAL   SCHOOL. 

ignored  and  isolated  by  the  great  body  of  the  Southern 
whites,  or  more  or  less  actively  opposed;  a  condition 
of  affairs  which  made  the  spread  of  Oswego  methods 
to  the  white  schools  almost  an  impossibility.  But  in 
the  schools  for  colored  youth  the  new  methods  accom- 
plished most  gratifying  results,  notably  at  Avery  Nor- 
mal Institute,  Charleston,  S.C.,  and  Atlanta  University, 
Atlanta,  Ga. 

Professor  Amos  W.  Farnham,  now  principal  of  the 
Department  of  Practice  at  the  Oswego  Normal,  was 
the  first  to  break  the  way  into  the  South  with  any  con- 
siderable momentum.  He  was  employed  in  1875  as 
principal  of  the  Avery  Normal  Institute.  He  associated 
with  him  three  Oswego  teachers.  The  professional  work 
was  thoroughly  organized  on  the  Oswego  plan  ;  and  Na- 
ture Study  and  Industrial  Work,  from  the  start  essen- 
tial features  of  the  Oswego  philosophy,  here  received 
especial  prominence.  The  graduates  of  this  school  were 
instrumental  in  spreading  the  practical  features  of  the 
new  education  in  many  sections  of  the  State  among 
their  own  people. 

Four  years  later  Professor  Farnham  began  a  similar 
work  at  Atlanta  'University,  the  leading  school  in  Geor- 
gia for  the  higher  education  of  the  colored  people.  Here, 
again,  nature  work  and  industrial  education  assumed 
great  prominence  in  the  scheme  of  pedagogy.  Evi- 
dence of  the  high  character  of  the  nature  work  done 
here  is  the  book,  Development  Lessons,  by  Mr.  DeGraff 
and  Miss  M.  K.  Smith,  an  Oswego  graduate.     "The 


THE   OSWEGO   IDEA  IN   NORMAL   SCHOOLS.  67 

lessons  on  insects  which  that  book  contains  are  a  tran- 
script of  work  done  in  Atlanta  University  by  M.  K. 
Smith,  class  of  January  '83.  She  also  gave  in  that 
institution  the  Development  Lessons  on  Form  and  Plants, 
and  the  plant  illustrations  which  the  book  contains  were 
engraved  from  drawings  made  by  Miss  Smith's  pupils."  ^ 
In  Charleston  and  Atlanta,  at  this  period.  Professor 
Farnham  reports  that  their  Normal  departments  were 
visited  by  the  prominent  teachers  of  the  white  schools 
and  members  of  the  school  boards.  "It  is  plain  to  be 
seen,"  says  he,  "in  localities  where  good  work  is  done 
for  colored  youth,  that  the  whites  of  those  localities 
increased  their  efforts  for  the  education  of  the  white 
youth.  And  the  more  progressive  patrons  of  white 
schools  are  on  the  qui  vive  that  their  children's  school 
privileges  shall  not  be  inferior  to  those  of  colored  chil- 
dren in  their  midst." 

After  remaining  at  Atlanta  three  years.  Professor 
Farnham  was  called  to  organize  the  Normal  department 
of  Claflin  University  in  Orangeburg,  S.C.  At  the  end 
of  two  years,  Professor  Farnham  declined  an  offer  to 
take  charge  of  the  department  of  Nature  Study  in  the 
Cook  County  Normal,  that  he  might  continue  the  effec- 
tive itinerant  missionary  work  he  was  doing  at  the 
South ;  accordingly  the  next  two  yeare  were  spent  in 
organizing  the  American  Missionary  Association's  school 
at  Selma,  Ala.  Professor  Farnham's  latest  work  was 
the  establishment  of  the  Orange  Park  Normal  School, 

1  Paper  by  Professor  Farnham  in  "  Historical  Sketches." 


68  THE    OSWEGO   NORMAL   SCHOOL 

in  Orange  Park,  Fla.,  a  school  novel  in  more  than  one 
respect,  and  one  which  has  lately  provoked  more  atten- 
tion from  the  Florida  State  Superintendent  of  Educa- 
tion, the  Florida  Legislature,  and  the  press  at  large, 
than  any  other  school  in  Florida. 

In  1884  an  Oswego  graduate,  Miss  E.  D.  Santley, 
became  principal  of  Beach  Institute  at  Savannah,  Ga., 
and  successfully  applied  the  Oswego  methods  in  that  in- 
stitution. Spelman  Seminary,  the  largest  girls'  school  in 
the  South,  perhaps  in  the  country  (it  had  nine  hundred 
girls  a  few  yeare  ago),  has  for  some  time  placed  its  Teach- 
ers' Training  Department  under  Oswego  influence. 

Early  in  the  '80's  Miss  Anna  Baldwin,  an  Oswego 
graduate,  carried  forward  the  work  in  the  famous  Hamp- 
ton Normal  and  Agricultural  Institute.  Other  Oswego 
teachers  have  followed  her  from  time  to  time,  one  of 
whom.  Miss  Susan  Showers,  has  since  done  a  note- 
worthy work  at  the  new  Calhoun  School  in  Lowndes 
County,  Ala.  Oswego  teachers  have  worked  in  Fisk 
University  at  Nashville,  Tenn.,  in  Tougaloo  University 
at  Tougaloo,  Miss.,  in  Clarksdale,  Miss.,  Augusta,  Ga., 
and  the  colored  schools  at  Baltimore. 

An  observant  writer  on  Southern  education  has 
said :  — 

"  The  Southern  negro,  in  some  respects,  has  been  more  fortu- 
nate than  his  white  brethren.  At  Hampton,  Va.,  is  established 
one  of  the  best  training-schools  in  the  South,  which  has  sent 
forth  great  numbers  of  effective  teachers  for  the  colored  children. 
The  '  Colleges '  and  '  Universities,'  perhaps  a  score  in  number, 


THE   OSWEGO   IDEA   IN    NORMAL   SCHOOLS.  69 

that  have  been  established  by  Northern  missions,  made  the  mis- 
take, at  first,  of  pitching  the  key  too  high,  and  leaving  out  of 
account  the  mighty  factor  of  heredity  in  dealing  with  their  pupils. 
It  has  been  largely  owing  to  the  graduates  of  our  Northern  Nor- 
mal Schools,  who  have  been  employed  as  teachers,  that  this  cleri- 
cal and  collegiate  mistake  has  been  gi-adually  overcome.  The 
gift  of  Slater  has  now  enabled  nearly  all  of  them  to  inaugurate 
industrial  training.  Thus  organized,  these  '  universities  *  for  the 
colored  people  are  really  in  some  respects  the  most  original 
schools  in  our  country,  and  are  destined  to  become  a  mighty 
power  in  the  uplift  of  the  American  colored  citizen." 

The  limited  scope  and  practical  character  of  these 
new  Normal  departments  soon  proved  them  to  be  the 
very  thing  needed  in  the  colored  schools.  The  crying 
necessity  for  educated  teachers  for  the  emancipated  race 
was  so  apparent  to  all,  that  Normal  departments  needed 
to  waste  no  time  in  arguing  their  case  or  overcoming 
scholastic  prejudices.  They  formed  an  easy  transition 
from  the  hyper-classical  curricula  of  which  Dr.  Mayo 
complains,  to  the  shorter,  more  immediately  useful  Eng- 
lish courses  in  the  "  colleges  "  and  "  universities."  At 
the  present  day  they  are  justly  the  most  popular  courses 
in  all  colored  schools  engaged  in  the  higher  studies. 
In  1895  eight  hundred  and  forty-four  students  were 
graduated  from  Normal  courses  in  these  institutions, 
while  one  hundred  and  eighty-six  were  graduated  from 
collegiate  courses.  Many  of  these  Normal  courses  in 
the  colored  schools  make  considerable  provision  for  in- 
dustrial training,  either  in  the  shape  of  a  nearly  parallel 
industrial  course,  or  of  so  many  hours  per  week  in  the 
Normal  course  proper. 


70  THE   OSWEGO   NORMAL   SCHOOL. 

All  classes  of  the  schools  of  the  South  to-day  share 
the  benefits  of  the  new  education.  Not  only  is  the  prej- 
udice against  Northern  Normal  trained  teachers  in  white 
schools  fast  disappearing,  but  every  Southern  State  has 
its  own  system  of  Normal  Schools  for  both  races.  In 
these  newer  Normal  Schools  at  the  South,  Oswego 
influence  is  mostly  secondary ;  that  is,  the  Northern 
teachers  who  have  aided  in  this  new  awakening  at  the 
South  have  themselves  been  educated  in  the  Normal 
Schools  so  generally  established,  as  shown  in  the  first 
part  of  this  chapter,  under  Oswego  influences.  Oswego 
graduates  introduced  the  Oswego  Methods  in  the  Train- 
ing-School  at  Washington,  D.C,  in  the  seventies. 

From  the  work  of  Oswego  graduates  in  the  Normal 
Schools  of  the  country,  which  it  has  been  the  purpose  of 
this  chapter  to  exhibit,  it  is  not  difficult  to  realize  the  tre- 
mendous influence  which  Oswego  has  exerted,  through 
the  Normal  Schools  alone,  upon  the  common  schools  of 
the  land.  Every  year  these  Normal  Schools  send  out 
thousands  of  teachers  who  have  learned  the  new  educa- 
tion in  schools  whose  professional  work  was  organized 
by  Oswego  graduates.  These  teachers  can  be  found  in 
nearly  every  city  and  town  of  the  country,  —  in  public 
schools,  private  schools,  and  Kindergartens. 

The  revolution  has  been  complete.  The  days  of  the 
reign  of  the  alphabet,  the  blue-back  speller,  the  dreary 
rules,  the  narrow  gauged  curriculum,  the  impenetrable 
text-book,  the  sunless,  tradition-bound  schoolroom  and 


THE   OSWEGO   IDEA   IN   NORMAL   SCHOOLS.  71 

SCHOOLMASTER,  are  happily  at  an  end.  The  new  era 
of  light  and  love  and  freedom  is  the  heritage  of  every 
American  boy  and  girl.  All  honor  to  Pestalozzi,  to  Dr. 
Sheldon,  and  to  the  American  educators,  who  were  so 
ready  to  see  the  good  and  adopt  it. 

Oswego  is  a  school  with  a  past.  It  also  has  a  pres- 
ent. Semi-annually  it  is  sending  out  graduates  with 
still  better  equipment  than  that  possessed  by  those  of 
the  first  decade ;  and  wherever  they  go,  their  influence 
is  still  noticeable  for  professional  zeal  and  pedagogical 
skill.  A  complete  census  of  Oswego  graduates  now  at 
work  in  our  schools  would  scarcely  pay  for  the  work 
involved,  for  it  would  reveal  nothing  new.  However, 
some  replies  recently  received  to  letters  of  inquiry  sent 
into  a  number  of  States  will  not  be  without  value  as 
evidence.  It  will  of  course  be  recognized  that  the 
many  excellent  Normal  Schools  in  all  the  States  now 
render  the  migration  of  Oswego  graduates  from  New 
York  State  exceptional  rather  than  the  rule. 

To  trace  Oswego  graduates  throughout  New  York 
State  would  be  an  endless  task.  They  are  to  be  found 
in  all  grades  of  public  schools  in  all  sections  of  the 
State.  There  are  about  seventy  teachers  in  the  public 
schools  of  Oswego,  all  but  two  or  three  of  whom  are 
Oswego  graduates.  A  goodly  number  may  be  found  in 
the  schools  of  Yonkers,  Ilion,  Albany,  New  York, 
Brooklyn,  Buffalo,  Syracuse,  and  other  cities  and  vil- 
lages of  the  State.  In  Buffalo  Mr.  C.  N.  Millard,  '90, 
is   the   popular    superintendent   of    aU   the    Grammar 


72  THE  OSWEGO   NORMAL   SCHOOL. 

Grades  of  the  city.  Other  Oswego  graduates  may  be 
found  there  as  principals  of  schools,  in  the  high  school, 
Buffalo  Seminary,  and  on  the  faculty  of  the  Buffalo 
Normal  School. 

The  Brooklyn  Training-School  employs  Oswego  gradu- 
ates as  teachers  of  methods  and  critics.  A  large  num- 
ber are  teaching  in  the  Brooklyn  city  schools,  eight  are 
teaching  in  the  Froebel  Academy  (founded  by  an  Os- 
wego graduate),  and  several  are  members  of  the  faculty 
of  Adelphi  College. 

The  Teachers'  Training  class  in  Syracuse  is  in  charge 
of  an  Oswego  graduate ;  others  are  teaching  in  the  high 
school  and  grammar  schools  of  the  city.  Long  Island 
has  become  remarkably  partial  to  Oswego  graduates. 
One  of  their  number  informs  me  that  nearly  all  the 
teachers  at  Sayville,  Greenport,  Islip,  Patchogue,  Bay 
Shore,  and  Northport  are  Oswego  graduates ;  they  are 
also  at  work  on  Staten  Island  and  in  Long  Island  City. 
Indeed,  some  years  ago  Long  Island  supported  a  flour- 
ishing Oswego  alumni  association.  Recently  it  has  be- 
come merged  in  the  New  York  State  Alumni  Association 
of  Oswego  graduates.  Several  of  the  best  private  schools 
in  New  York  State  select  their  teaching  force  largely 
from  among  Oswego  graduates.  Instances  are  the 
Misses  Masters'  Ladies'  School  at  Dobb's  Ferry,  the 
Albany  Academy,  and  Emma  Willard  School  at  Troy, 
and  the  German  Academy,  Hoboken. 

In  the  neighboring  State  of  New  Jersey  a  number  of 
graduates  are  at  work  in   Paterson,  at  large  salaries ; 


THE  OSWEGO   IDEA   IN   NORMAL   SCHOOLS.  73 

others  at  Hasbrouck  Institute,  Jersey  City,  and  East 
Orange. 

New  England  still  keeps  in  touch  with  Oswego 
graduates.  The  schools  at  Brookline,  Mass.,  among 
the  best  in  the  country,  are  permeated  with  the  influ- 
ence of  Oswego  graduates.  The  late  superintendent  of 
the  Andover  Schools  (more  recently  of  the  schools  of 
Dan  vers  and  Belmont)  and  a  number  of  his  assistants 
are  Oswego  graduates.  Oswego  graduates  are  teaching 
in  North  Adams,  Shelburne  Falls,  Springfield,  and 
other  places  in  Massachusetts.  They  are  in  Bridge- 
port, Stamford,  and  other  places  in  Connecticut.  A 
number  are  in  Burlington,  Vt.,  and  several  are  in 
smaller  towns  of  that  State.  Oswego  graduates  are  at 
work  in  the  public  schools  of  nearly  all  of  the  cities  of 
the  Great  West.  Oswego  influence,  however,  as  has 
been  shown,  was  most  strongly  felt  in  the  West  in  the 
State  and  city  Normal  Schools,  which  now  furnish  the 
supply  of  teachers  for  the  city  schools. 

The  Oswego  methods  have  extended  beyond  the 
limits  of  the  United  States  into  foreign  countries. 
Canada,  where  Dr.  Sheldon  received  his  first  definite 
suggestions,  has  from  time  to  time  welcomed  Oswego 
graduates  to  her  schools ;  and  the  Canada  Board  of 
Education  has  sent  delegates  to  observe  the  Oswego 
work.  South  of  us,  in  our  sister  republic,  Mexico,  an 
Oswego  graduate  has  been  working  for  fifteen  years. 

South  America  has  employed  Oswego  graduates,  or 


74  THE   OSWEGO   NORMAL  SCHOOL. 

teachers  taught  by  Oswego  graduates,  quite  extensively 
in  some  of  its  States,  notably  the  Argentine  Republic. 
Professor  Wm.  F.  Phelps,  who  has  called  the  Winona 
Normal  the  "  second  edition  of  Oswego,"  was  chiefly 
instrumental  in  the  exodus,  and  thus  refers  to  it :  — 

"  As  an  example  of  the  secondary  influence  of  Oswego,  let  me 
state  that  in  the  early  '70's  there  was  a  call  from  the  Argentine 
Republic  for  teachers  of  the  modern  type  for  the  Normal 
schools  of  that  country.  One  of  my  graduates,  Miss  S.  E.  Wade, 
was  sent  there,  and  was  given  a  commanding  position  in  the  Nor- 
mal School  at  Parana,  where  she  remained  for  four  years.  Her 
work  was  so  satisfactory  that  others  were  called  for ;  and  Miss 
Frances  E.  Allen  of  the  Winona  School  was  commissioned,  and 
stayed  there  for  five  years  or  more.  The  work  of  these  ladies 
was  so  acceptable  that  others  still  were  demanded ;  and  I  was  glad 
to  be  instrumental  in  sending  some  fifteen  or  twenty  in  all. 
Many  of  them  are  still  there,  among  them  Miss  Armstrong  of 
Oswego,  and  others  whose  names  I  cannot  now  recall.  These 
ladies  have  wrought  a  wonderful  change  in  the  schools  and  in  the 
ideas  of  the  people.  They  have  practically  shaped  the  public 
school  policy  of  that  country.  1  think  there  were  some  six  or 
eight  Normal  Schools  supported  by  the  provincial  and'  national 
government." 

An  Oswego  graduate  has  taught  also  at  Bogota,  State 
of  Colombia. 

Japan  is  not  unacquainted  with  Oswego  methods. 
Mr.  Hideo  Takamine,  who  was  graduated  from  Oswego 
in  1877,  was  appointed  by  the  Department  of  Education 
in  Japan,  director  of  the  Higher  Normal  School  at 
Tokio,  a  position  he  filled  for  nine  years.     An  official 


THE   OSWEGO   IDEA   IN   NORMAL   SCHOOLS.  75 

in  the  department  informs  me  that  Mr.  Takamine 
"  rendered  good  service  to  the  advancement  of  general 
education  in  Japan." 

In  1887  Mrs.  Emma  Dickerman  Straight,  class  of 
'71,  whose  work  in  Nebraska,  Missouri,  and  the  Cook 
County  Normal  has  already  been  mentioned,  went  to 
Tokio,  where  she  taught  for  a  number  of  years  in  the 
Higher  Normal  School.^  Miss  Harriet  S.  Ailing,  of  the 
class  of  '83,  is  at  present  teaching  in  that  country.  A 
few  years  ago  a  Japanese  lady  spent  several  months  at 
Oswego  in  observation. 

Oswego  propagandists  have  played  a  large  part  in 
the  remarkable  development  which  elementary  educa- 
tion has  undergone  in  Hawaii.  Since  1872  a  number 
of  Oswego  graduates  have  been  called  to  the  distant 
islands,  and  several  are  now  teaching  there.  In  1895 
two  Hawaiian  young  men  were  graduated  from  the 
Oswego  Normal.  They  were  sent  there  by  a  wealthy 
gentleman  in  that  country,  and  have  now  returned  as 
teachers  to  their  native  islands. 


1  For  the  relation  of  this  school  to  the  other  Normal  Schools  of 
Japan,  see  article  on  "The  Educational  System  of  Japan."  Report  of 
U.  S.  Commissioner  of  Education  for  1890-91,  vol.  i. 


CHAPTER  V. 

LATER   MOVEMENTS   AT   OSWEGO. 

Oswego  was  the  first  State  Normal  School  in  the 
United  States  to  offer  a  definite  coui*se  in  the  Kinder- 
garten methods.  Its  Kindergarten  course  was  estab- 
lished in  1881.  The  rooms  were  large,  beautifully 
decorated  and  equipped  at  the  start  with  all  the  Kin- 
dergarten necessities  that  good  taste  could  suggest.  The 
Kindergarten  is  free  to  the  children  of  the  city,  and  is 
exceedingly  popular,  mothers  having  to  secure  places 
for  their  children  a  year  ahead.  The  music,  the  pic- 
tures, the  warm  coloi-s,  the  merry  games,  the  busy  work, 
and  happy  faces  of  delighted  children  make  these 
rooms  an  attractive  feature  for  visitors.  After  the  es- 
tablishment of  this  department,  Oswego  graduates  had 
the  privilege  of  watching  under  skilled  direction  the 
unfolding  of  childhood's  buds,  from  the  tots  of  four 
years  of  age  in  the  Kindergarten,  through  the  primary, 
intermediate,  and  grammar  grades  to  the  high  school. 
The  unity  of  life  and  the  succession  of  its  stages  are 
thus  subject  to  organized  observation,  and  afford  con- 
crete and  certain  data  for  the  working  out  of  methods 
adapted  to  those  various  changes  in  the  child's  evolu- 
tion. 

76 


LATER   MOVEMENTS   AT   OSWEGO.  77 

Since  1881  one  hundred  and  thirty-two  students  have 
availed  themselves  of  this  generous  provision,  and  they 
are  now  doing  efficient  work  in  various  sections  of  our 
country. 

In  1888  nine  Normal  Schools  had  added  a  Kinder- 
garten course  to  their  other  courses. 

Oswego  started  out  originally  as  a  purely  profes- 
sional training-school,  requiring  a  certain  academic 
scholarship  as  a  condition  of  entrance.  This  plan  was 
early  found  to  be  impracticable,  because  of  the  character 
of  academic  work  which  was  presented,  as  well  as  the 
small  number  of  pupils  possessing  the  required  schol' 
arship.  As  soon  as  it  became  evident  that  the  trainr 
ing-school  must  give  the  ntatter  as  well  as  the  method, 
Oswego  added  (in  1865)  to  its  one-year  professional 
course  two  English  courses,  one  requiring  two  years, 
the  other  three.  In  1867  a  four-years'  classical  course 
was  added.  The  last  year  of  these  various  courses  was 
devoted  exclusively  to  professional  work. 

In  1890  Dr.  Sheldon  decided  to  discontinue  the 
teaching  of  the  ancient  and  modem  languages,  and  to 
use  the  time  and  money  formerly  given  to  such  teach- 
ing to  post-graduate  courses,  providing  academical  and 
professional  training  in  more  advanced  English  and 
scientific  studies.  The  advanced  professional  course  for 
those  preparing  themselves  for  the  positions  of  critic 
and  training-teachers  in  other  Normal  Schools  has  thus 
far  served  a  very  useful  purpose.  Graduates  from  this 
course  are  in  demand  among  Normal  Schools.     Gradu- 


78  THE   OSWEGO   NORMAL   SCHOOL. 

ates  of  marked  ability  are  invited  by  the  faculty  to  take 
this  course. 

In  1892  the  two-years'  elementary  course  was  dropped 
in  all  of  the  State  Normal  Schools  of  New  York. 

From  the  start  the  Manual-Training  Idea  —  learning 
by  doing  —  had  been  a  cardinal  principle  underlying  Os- 
wego methods ;  and  clay  modelling,  the  making  of  ele- 
mentary scientific  apparatus,  and  the  various  forms  of 
handiwork  now  familiar  in  primary  schools,  occupied  a 
considerable  portion  of  the  time  of  the  student-teacher. 
Gradually  facilities  for  this  work  grew  until  now  the 
Oswego  school  has  two  large  and  well-equipped  man- 
ual-training work-shops,  —  one  for  the  four  hundred 
children  forming  the  practice  school,  the  other  for 
the  Normal  students  proper.  The  standard  jokes  on 
woman's  difficulties  in  driving  nails  and  handling  saws 
would  fall  rather  flat  among  Oswego  girls.  The  heavier 
machinery  of  both  shops  is  run  by  steam-engines  of 
suitable  power. 

The  allied  department  of  mechanical  drawing  is  ex- 
ceptionally well  manned  and  equipped.  Happy  are  the 
children  taught  in  the  practice-classes  at  Oswego.  They 
get  the  benefit  constantly  of  the  newest  and  best  devel- 
opments in  educational  method.  They  were  the  first  to 
experience  the  joy  of  emancipation  from  books  and  for- 
mulas into  the  inviting  life  of  bird  and  rock  and  smil- 
ing flower ;  and  many  natures  here,  formerly  repressed 
because  of  a  diffident  speech  and  stumbling  perceptions 
of  spellingbook-inconsistencies  and  arithmetic  puzzles, 


LATER   MOVEMENTS   AT    OSWEGO.  79 

rejoiced  to  find  the  industrious  hand  as  expressive  in 
its  way  as  the  tongue,  and  to  find  every  growing  tree 
and  breathing  animal  an  avenue  to  the  knowledge  which 
spellingbook  and  arithmetic  kept  so  far  away.  In  this 
practice-school  the  first  American  history  that  brought 
them  face  to  face  with  original  sources,  and  gave  them 
the  privilege  of  constructing  their  own  philosophy  of  his- 
tory, saw  the  light.  To  them  came  the  first  sunny  con- 
tact with  the  Kindergarten  as  related  to  the  whole  plan 
of  Normal  School  work ;  and  with  them,  as  I  write,  prob- 
lems are  daily  being  worked  out,  which  being  based  on 
their  own  natures  and  the  constitution  of  the  world 
about  them,  will  shorten  and  make  more  attractive, 
more  accessible,  the  roads  leading  to  the  temple  of 
Truth.i 

Fortunate  also  the  1900  and  more  teachers  who  have 
entered  its  portals  to  study  life,  to  follow  all  stages  of 
its  development,  and  to  intelligently  shape  the  body  of 
knowledge  into  forms  fitted  to  these  stages,  so  as  to  get 
it  with  minimum  waste  of  effort  into  eager  minds ;  but 
better  than  all  to  have  received  the  benediction,  the  in- 
spiration, of  the  life  of  the  man  who  for  thirty-six  years 
remained  its  faithful  head. 

^  See  An  Outline  of  Nature  Study  and  History  and  Literature, 
(1896),  School  of  Practice  of  the  Oswego  Normal  and  Training  School. 


CHAPTER   VI. 

PERSONALITIES   IN   THE    OSW^EGO   MOVBIVEENT. 
DB.  E.  A.  SHELDON. 

No  adequate  understanding  of  the  spirit  and  the 
methods  of  Oswego's  development  can  be  had,  except 
we  put  before  us,  in  somewhat  clearer  light  than  could 
be  done  in  the  preceding  pages,  the  lives  of  some  of  the 
men  and  women  who  have  made  it  what  it  is. 

Dr.  Sheldon  was  bom  in  October,  1823,  of  New  Eng- 
land parents,  on  a  farm  in  Genesee  County,  N.Y.  His 
first  school-days  were  spent  at-  an  unattractive  district 
school,  his  own  feeling  for  which  may  be  easily  gathered 
from  his  remark  that  he  had  "  gone  to  school  to  an  ash- 
heap."  Fortunately  for  his  pedagogical  development, 
a  wide-awake  college-bred  man  opened  an  academy  at 
the  nearest  towTi,  and  initiated  him  at  seventeen  into 
the  mysteries  of  Greek  and  Latin,  algebra  and  geometry. 
Four  years  later  he  entered  Hamilton  College,  purpos- 
ing at  the  end  of  his  college-course  to  study  law.  Ill 
health  forced  him  to  leave  college  at  the  close  of  his 
junior  year.  While  at  college  he  was  spoken  of  by  his 
instructors  as  "  a  young  man  of  intelligence,  ability, 
the  firmest  integrity,  and  a  wann  heart,"  —  qualities 
which  exhibited  the  bent  of  his  nature,  and  led  him  to 

80 


PERSONALITIES  IN  THE  OSWEGO  MOVEMENT.         81 

interest  himself  in  the  philanthropic  experiment  which 
he  began  at  Oswego,  where  during  the  interim  he  had 
gone  to  learn  the  nursery  business.  The  misery  and 
poverty  of  the  city  slums  were  a  revelation  to  the  young 
man.  With  him  to  recognize  a  condition  was  to  seek 
for  a  practical  remedy.  He  went  among  the  tenement 
houses,  making  a  record  of  the  things  he  saw,  and  with 
this  for  a  text  succeeded  in  getting  friends  to  form  an 
"  Orphan  and  Free  School  Association,"  which  soon 
secured  a  school,  but  found  difficulties  in  getting  the 
right  teacher.  The  enterprise  was  on  the  point  of  being 
abandoned  —  Mr.  Sheldon  was  just  then  about  to  enter 
the  Auburn  Theological  Seminary,  but  gave  up  his  am- 
bitions to  save  the  orphan  school  from  failure.  The 
story  of  what  developed  from  here  on  has  been  sym- 
pathetically told  by  his  daughter,  Mrs.  Mary  Sheldon 
Barnes. 

"  When  asked  what  salary  he  wanted,  he  said,  '  It  will 
cost  me  about  two  hundred  and  seventy-five  dollars  a 
year  to  live,  and  this  is  all  I  want.'  They  gave  him 
three  hundred  dollars,  and  my  father  entered  what 
afterward  proved  his  chosen  career. 

"Behold,  then,  in  the  early  winter  of  1848  and  1849, 
the  young  schoolmaster  before  his  first  school.  Utterly 
without  experience,  almost  without  a  plan,  he  stands 
face  to  face  with  one  hundred  and  twenty  'wild  Irish 
boys  and  girls  of  all  ages,  from  five  to  twenty-one,' 
utterly  rude  and  untrained.  Yet,  he  says,  they  gave 
him  '  no  trouble.'    If  they  engaged  in  a  free  fight,  it  was 


82  THE  OSWEGO  NORMAL  SCHOOL. 

from  ignorance  of  the  proprieties  of  time  and  place,  not 
from  any  desire  to  be  ugly ;  if  some  boys  became  rest- 
less, they  were  sent  out  to  race  around  the  block  and 
see  who  could  be  back  first.  They  were  called  to  order 
by  rapping  on  the  stovepipe ;  they  were  held  in  order 
and  kept  to  their  work  by  the  genuine  love  he  bore  to 
them.  I  have  not  been  able  to  find  that  any  case  of 
discipline  occurred  in  this  rough  '  ragged  school.'  As 
my  father  went  to  his  work  of  a  morning,  his  warm- 
hearted Irish  children  trooped  about  him,  seizing  him 
by  the  fingers  or  the  coat-tails,  wherever  they  could  best 
catch  hold,  to  the  great  amusement  of  the  storekeepers 
and  the  passers-by.  Saturday  morning  he  spent  in  pas- 
toral work,  that  is,  in  visiting  his  pupils  at  home,  and 
in  seeing  that  they  were  not  suffering  for  the  neces- 
saries of  life.  This  was  the  hardest  day  of  his  week ; 
and  the  young  schoolmaster  usually  found  himself  ex- 
hausted by  noon,  so  great  was  the  draft  made  on  his 
sympathies  by  ignorance,  sickness,  incompetence,  and 
misfortune. 

"  The  work  could  not  stop  here  in  my  father's  mind ; 
and  from  this  beginning  .  .  .  sprang  in  time  the  organ- 
ization of  free  and  graded  schools  in  Oswego,  and  the 
establishment  of  the  orphan  asylum." 

These  developments  did  not  occur  without  struggle. 
In  1849  Mr.  Sheldon  married  Miss  Frances  A.  B.  Stiles, 
and  in  1850  opened  a  private  school.  This  venture  did 
not  prove  a  success ;  and  he  applied  for  and  obtained 
the  position  of  superintendent  of  schools  in  Syracuse, 


PERSONALITIES   IN   THE   OSWEGO   MOVEMENT.  83 

N.Y.  In  the  two  years  of  his  stay  he  consolidated  and 
graded  the  elementary  schools,  and  began  a  collection 
of  books  which  formed  the  nucleus  of  the  present  valu- 
able Central  Library  in  Syracuse.  He  published  the  first 
annual  report  ever  made  to  the  city  schools,  and  laid 
the  plans  for  what  is  now  one  of  the  finest  high  schools 
in  the  State.  In  1853  he  returned  to  Oswego,  this 
time  to  thoroughly  organize  a  system  of  graded  free 
schools  for  that  city.  An  evidence  of  his  watchfulness 
and  independence  are  the  arithmetic  ungraded  schools 
and  the  unclassified  school,  which  were  inserted  into  the 
system  to  meet  the  wants  of  the  sailor  boys,  idle  from 
December  to  April,  and  of  the  irregular  laboring  poor 
who  could  not  adapt  themselves  to  the  graded  system. 
This  was  in  1859.  Since  then  similar  schools  have  been 
found  indispensable  auxiliaries  to  the  public-school  sys- 
tem of  many  cities.  Dr.  Sheldon's  progressive  work 
with  the  Oswego  schools,  resulting  finally  in  the  Oswego 
Normal  and  Training-School,  has  been  described  in 
former  pages.  The  great  exertions  which  he  put  forth 
to  develop  the  Oswego  Normal  School,  and  to  gain  a 
wide  recognition  for  the  Oswego  methods,  would  have 
borne  down  a  man  of  a  less  vigorous  constitution. 

"  But  these  years  of  labor,"  says  Mrs.  Sheldon  Barnes, 
"were,  however,  also  years  of  honor  and  recognition. 
It  is  almost  startling  to  see  how  instantly  the  educa- 
tional leaders  of  the  day  acknowledged  the  superiority 
of  Oswego  methods  and  ideas.  In  1862  my  father  was 
elected  superintendent  of  the  schools  in  Troy;  but  he 


84  THE  OSWEGO   NORMAL  SCHOOL. 

resigned  the  honor,  although  the  place  was  more  impor- 
tant and  central,  and  the  salary  larger  by  some  hundreds 
than  that  he  then  received,  for  the  simple  but  sufficient 
reason  that  he  felt  that  the  work  in  Oswego  was  not  yet 
ripe  for  an  independent  life.  The  books  on  methods  not 
only  stirred  up  teachers  throughout  our  own  country, 
but  had  a  good  sale  in  England  itself ;  while  the  fame 
of  the  Oswego  schools  brought  to  the  modest  home  by 
the  lake  many  an  educational  pilgrim  of  distinction." 
In  1867  Dr.  Sheldon  refused  the  offer  of  the  principal- 
ship  of  the  Albany  Normal  and  of  the  Department  of 
Pedagogy  in  the  University  of  Missouri  for  the  same 
conscientious  reasons  which  persuaded  him  to  reject  the 
Troy  position.  Sacrifices  of  this  nature  were  not  always 
appreciated,  even  by  the  citizens  of  Oswego.  Apart 
from  the  opposition  Dr.  Sheldon  had  to  face,  led  by  Dr. 
Wilbur,  the  most  serious  and  keenly  felt  was  that  in- 
stituted by  those  for  whom  he  had  spent  his  labors,  — 
the  people  of  Oswego  themselves.  He  was  accused  of 
teaching  cruelty  to  the  children  in  the  lessons  on  in- 
sects ;  he  was  dubbed  "  Pope "  because  of  his  great 
influence  with  the  Board  of  Education;  and  now  in  1872 
the  attack  was  made  all  along  the  line  on  the  whole 
scheme  of  Pestalozzian  instruction.  The  Board  failing 
to  yield  to  the  wishes  of  the  reactionists,  the  fight  was 
transferred  from  it  to  the  public  press  and  local  poli- 
tics. Several  newspaper  extracts  preserved  by  Mrs. 
Sheldon  Barnes  will  serve  to  show  the  spirit  of  some 
of  these  attacks. 


PERSONALITIES   IN   THE   OSWEGO   MOVEMENT.  85 

"  The  Pestalozzian  propagandists  are  just  now  filling  the  Press 
with  interminably  long  and  dreary  articles  on  the  '  great  under- 
lying principles '  of  the  '  objective  methods  of  teaching.*  .  .  . 
At  the  election  in  May  the  people  will  have  something  to  say 
about  a  system  by  which  they  have  been  humbugged  out  of  large 
sums  of  money  and  an  incalculable  amount  of  time." 

"  The  tax-payers  of  Oswego  will  see  to  it  that  their  schools  shall 
be  run  in  the  interests  of  sound,  practical  education,  and  not  .  .  . 
to  build  fortunes  of  book-publishing  rings  and  Pestalozzian  mono- 
maniacs." 

"  We  have  yet  to  find  a  person  not  directly  interested  in  the 
profits  of  '  the  system '  who  does  not  agree  with  us  that  read- 
ing, writing,  English  grammar,  arithmetic,  and  geography  —  and 
those  branches  only — should  be  taught  in  tlie  public  shools  at 
public  expense." 

Three  yeai-s  before  this  onslaught  Dr.  Sheldon  had 
resigned  his  place  as  superintendent  of  the  Oswego 
schools  that  he  might  give  his  whole  time  to  the  Nor- 
mal School.  Thus  the  attack  was  not  personally  against 
him  as  superintendent;  but  he  felt  it  none  the  less 
keenly  as  being  directed  against  the  reform  which  he 
initiated,  and  which  was  his  life.  The  reactionists 
gained  the  day,  and  for  several  years  the  old  rSgime  of 
the  text-book  and  the  narrow  gauged  cheerless  curricu- 
lum attempted  to  take  the  place  of  the  subjects  and 
methods  characteristic  of  the  New  Education.  The 
high  school  was  abolished.  The  change  only  served  to 
bring  into  stronger  relief  the  real  merits  of  the  objective 
studies.  For  many  years  Oswego  methods  and  Oswego 
graduates  have  held  possession  of  the  Oswego  public 


^ 


86  THE   OSWEGO  NORMAL  SCHOOL, 

schools.  To-day  the  city  superintendent  is  an  Oswego 
graduate,  as  are  all  but  two  or  three  of  the  seventy  or 
more  teachers  under  his  direction.  In  1880  the  long 
years  of  toil  brought  on  poor  health,  and  Dr.  Sheldon 
offered  to  resign  as  principal  of  the  Normal  School.  The 
Board  would  not  listen  to  it,  granted  him  a  year  or  two 
of  rest,  and  insisted  upon  continuing  his  salary.  The 
faculty  divided  his  work  among  themselves.  These 
evidences  of  the  real  feeling  of  the  people  toward  him 
materially  aided  his  recovery.  In  1881  he  reassumed 
his  principalship  with  the  old-time  vigor.  That  year 
he  made  the  kindergarten  an  organic  part  of  the  train- 
ing furnished  by  the  Normal  School.  In  1869  Hamil- 
ton College  conferred  upon  him  the  degree  of  A.M., 
and  in  1875  the  Regents  of  the  University  of  New  York 
added  Ph.D. 

The  contribution  which  the  Oswego  Normal  has  made 
to  American  pedagogy  is  certainly  a  sufficient  work  for 
any  one  life ;  yet  Dr.  Sheldon  was  not  oblivious  to  edu- 
cational questions  —  especially  in  his  native  State  — 
which  did  not  distinctly  concern  the  Oswego  school. 

For  many  years  Dr.  Sheldon  earnestly  though  pa- 
tiently labored  to  secure  the  abolishment  of  the  double- 
headed  system  of  educational  control  in  New  York  State. 
The  difference  which  has  often  existed  between  the 
Board  of  Regents  of  the  State  and  the  Department  of 
Public  Instruction  has  long  made  this  a  desirable  con- 
summation. In  1874  Dr.  Sheldon  secured  the  co-ope- 
ration of  the  normal-school  principals  of  the  State,  who 


Principal  ISAAC   B.   POUCH ER 
(Successor  to  Dr.  E.  A.  Sheldon). 


PEKSONALITIES   IN   THE   OSWEGO   MOVEMENT.  87 

sent  him  and  Dr.  M.  Mc Vicar  to  Albany  to  accomplish 
if  possible  a  unification  of  all  the  educational  interests 
of  the  State.  Dr.  Sheldon  made  an  address,  which  has 
been  published,  outlining  his  plan  for  unification,  before 
the  Association  of  School  Commissionei-s  and  Superinten- 
dents of  the  State.  The  plan  was  simple,  and  approved 
hy  the  Board  of  Regents  itself,  the  State  superinten- 
dent, and  a  conference  of  prominent  educators  of  the 
State.  Notwitlistanding  all  of  tliis  indorsement  the  bill 
was  killed  by  purely  political  influences.  Dr.  Sheldon, 
nothing  daunted,  made  another  attempt  at  the  time  of 
Mr.  Draper's  election  to  the  office  of  State  Superinten- 
dent, but  failed  to  secure  his  co-operation.  His  last 
effort  was  made  before  the  recent  constitutional  conven- 
tion of  the  State,  but  political  forces  again  conspired  to 
repress  a  measure  which  nearly  every  one  conceded  to 
be  good  and  worthy  of  adoption.  With  his  accustomed 
optimism,  however,  Dr.  Sheldon  said  recently :  "  Great 
good,  however,  has  grown  out  of  the  movement.  It 
has  tended  to  bring  together  and  relate  the  educational 
work  of  the  State,  and  effect  a  good  state  of  feeling 
between  the  educational  men  belonging  to  the  two  de- 
partments. In  this  way  a  great  gain  has  been  made, 
and  so  I  feel  that  my  work  has  not  been  altogether 
vain." 

Another  movement  inaugurated  by  Dr.  Sheldon  has 
shown  more  tangible  results.  In  1888  Dr.  Sheldon 
read  a  plea  before  the  Regents'  Convocation  at  Albany 
for  the  establishment  of  a  system  of  elementary  training- 


88  THE  OSWEGO  NORMAL   SCHOOL. 

schools  as  the  lowest  grade  of  a  system  of  professional 
State  schools,  of  which  the  then  eleven  regular  Normal 
Schools  would  be  the  next  higher  gi-ade,  and  a  thorough- 
going university  school  of  pedagogy  would  complete  the 
series.  The  Association  of  Academic  Principals  ap- 
pointed a  committee,  of  which  Dr.  Sheldon  was  chair- 
man, to  report  on  elementary  training-schools.  The 
result  of  this  effort  was,  that  the  teachers'  classes,  which 
were  in  the  academies  under  the  direction  of  the  Board 
of  Regents,  were  put  in  the  control  of  the  Department 
of  Public  Instruction,  and  they  are  now  making  steady 
improvement  with  promise  of  greater  things. 

The  other  aim  of  Dr.  Sheldon's  —  that  of  limiting 
the  work  of  Normal  Schools  to  professional  work  with 
subjects  distinctively  below  college  grade,  leaving  the 
pedagogical  instruction  of  college  students  to  the  peda- 
gogical departments  in  the  universities  —  does  not  meet 
with  favor  on  the  part  of  the  normal-school  men  of  the 
State,  since  the  plan  would  necessitate  a  giving  up  on 
their  part  of  some  academic  features  in  their  present 
courses  with  which  they  do  not  like  to  part.  The  uni- 
versities, however,  favor  the  notion,  and  the  present 
State  superintendent  indorses  it.  It  is  very  probable 
that  Cornell  will  soon  organize  such  a  department. 

To  recount  the  various  addresses  made  by  Dr.  Shel- 
don before  educational  bodies.  State  and  national,  and 
papers  written  for  different  occasions,  would  transcend 
the  limits  of  this  sketch.  In  another  place  a  list  of 
some  of  these  which  have  been  printed  are  given,  to- 


PERSONALITIES   IN   THE   OSWEGO  MOVEMENT.         89 

gether  with  his  books  on  object  teaching.  His  Manual 
of  Elementary  Instruction  and  Lessons  on  Objects  were 
the  fii-st  books  in  this  country  which  were  the  results 
of  practical  and  successful  application  of  Pestalozzian 
principles,  and  were  of  great  value  as  practical  guides 
to  those  interested  in  applying  the  work  of  the  great 
Swiss  reformer.  Shortly  after  their  publication,  Hon. 
Henry  Barnard,  then  United  States  Commissioner  of 
Education,  wrote  of  them,  in  connection  with  others 
which  followed :  — 

"  In  looking  over  the  Manual  of  Object  Teaching,  Lessons  on 
Objects,  Primary  Object  Lessons,  Oral  Lessons  on  Social  Science, 
Outlines  of  a  System  of  Object  Teaching,  Child's  Book  of  Nature, 
Model  Lessons,  etc.,  published  within  the  last  two  years,  we  are 
more  than  ever  satisfied  that  the  world  moves. 

At  the  recent  Buffalo  meeting  of  the  National  Edu- 
cational' Association,  Dr.  Sheldon,  who  had  read  an 
address,  was  recognized  as  the  Nestor  of  the  profession ; 
an  opinion  which  was  but  a  re-expression  of  that  voiced 
by  the  World's  Fair  officials  at  Chicago,  who  made  him 
the  president  of  the  Department  of  Professional  Train- 
ing of  Teachers,  probably  the  highest  honor  that  could 
come  to  him  in  his  chosen  field.  At  the  close  of  the 
Fair  they  capped  the  climax  by  awarding  his  school  the 
Medal  of  Honor  and  Diploma  for  its  long  and  useful 
career  under  one  principal.^ 

As  a  man  Dr.  Sheldon  was  universally  loved.     Those 

1  See  foot-note  on  next  page. 


90  THE  OSWEGO  NORMAL  SCHOOL. 

who  sometimes  opposed  him  in  policy  praised  him  in  life. 
Even  the  warm  enemies  of  early  days  now  acknowledge 
themselves  his  warm  admirers ;  and  with  the  open  book 
of  his  long  life  record  before  them,  critics  of  former 
days  see  the  mistakes  of  their  own  interpretation,  and 
the  absolute  purity  of  his  motives.  Dr.  Sheldon's  char- 
acter was  a  singular  combination  of  simplicity  and  of 
strength.  Innate  nobleness  and  kindness  gleamed  from 
every  feature  of  his  fine  gray  head.  I  know  of  no 
student  of  his  now  living  who  did  not  regard  him  as  a 
personal  friend,  and  none  whom  he  did  not  delight  to 
call  "children  of  my  household."  His  beautiful  home 
by  the  shore  of  Lake  Ontario,  now  no  longer  graced  by 
the  presence  of  his  devoted  wife,  but  recently  deceased, 
was  always  wide  open  to  his  students ;  and  the  trees  he 
loved  are  now  fragrant  with  hallowed  memories  of  his 
generosity. 

This  account  of  Dr.  Sheldon's  life  had  scarcely  been 
completed  when  the  sad  news  flashed  across  the  country 
of  his  death.  Aug.  5  I  received  his  last  suggestions  re- 
garding this  work ;  and  on  Aug.  28  his  great  soul,  even 

The  words  of  the  award  are  as  follows :  — 

FOR  EXCELLENCE  OF  EQUIPMENT,  METHOD,  WORK, 
AND  WTDE  USEFULNESS  THROUGHOUT  ITS  LONG  HISTORY 
UNDER  ONE  PRINCIPAL.  FOR  EXCELLENCE  OF  EDUCA- 
TIONAL METHODS  AND  LITERATURE  AS  EVIDENCED  BY 
THEIR  USE   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

In  his  report  for  the  Bureau  of  Education  in  1893,  Dr.  Eaton  gave 
the  Oswego  exhibit  first  place  among  the  normal  schools  of  New  York, 
and  emphasized  the  work  it  had  done  in  bringing  the  Pestalozzian  prin- 
ciples and  methods  to  America. 


PERSONALITIES   IN   THE   OSWEGO   MOVEMENT.  91 

according  to  his  own  dying  wish,  went  to  be  with  Christ, 
to  live  the  larger  life.  He  died  in  accord  with  his  oft- 
expressed  desire,  with  the  harness  on.  The  beginning 
of  his  thirty-seventh  year  as  principal  of  the  Oswego 
Normal  and  Training-School  was  but  a  few  days  off,  and 
he  was  in  the  midst  of  preparation  for  it.  The  night 
before  he  died  he  discussed  school  affairs  with  a  member 
of  the  Department  of  Education,  and  it  is  said  that  but 
forty-five  minutes  before  his  death  he  was  conversing 
with  a  young  man  who  called  to  see  him  about  school 
matters.  The  immediate  cause  of  death  was  heart 
disease.  The  end  came  suddenly,  but  did  not  find  him 
unprepared.  There  was  scarcely  an  hour's  warning,  but 
Dr.  Sheldon  recognized  it  at  once.  There  were  pres- 
ent with  him  then  his  son,  Professor  Charles  S.  Sheldon, 
and  wife,  and  Dr.  Sheldon's  sister.  Miss  Dorliska  E. 
Sheldon.  Mr.  Charles  Sheldon,  in  a  letter  just  received, 
has  lifted  the  curtain  of  that  hallowed  death  chamber. 
It  discloses  the  great  end  of  a  great  soul.  Mr.  Sheldon 
writes  :  — 

"  A  few  moments  before  his  death,  while  his  lungs  were  filling, 
and  we  all  felt  that  the  next  breath  might  be  his  last,  a  heavenly 
radiance  lighting  his  face,  he  whispered,  '  With  mother,'  then,  a 
moment  later,  'with  mother  and  Christ.'  His  own  life  had  been 
so  bound  up  in  hers  [his  wife's]  that  when  he  was  left  alone,  after 
she  had  passed  away,  he  seemed  to  be  leading  a  life  of  waiting. 
Within  about  five  minutes  after  these  last  words,  he  passed  peace- 
fully away." 

Dr.  Sheldon  is  survived  by  five  children ;    Mrs.  Mary 


92  THE  OSWEGO   NORMAL   SCHOOL. 

Sheldon  Barnes,  formerly  of  Leland  Stanford  Univer- 
sity, now  in  Europe ;  Professor  Charles  Stiles  Sheldon 
of  the  Oswego  Normal  School ;  Mrs.  Frances  Elizabeth 
Ailing  of  Chicago ;  Mrs.  Anna  Bradford  Howe,  and 
Mrs.  Laura  Austin  Inman,  both  of  Indianapolis,  Ind. 
An  only  sister.  Miss  Dorliska  Elizabeth  Sheldon,  made 
her  home  with  her  illustrious  brother  during  the  last 
twelve  years. 

When  the  news  got  out  the  morning  Dr.  Sheldon 
died,  the  city  that  had  known  him  half  a  century  seemed 
stunned.  The  editor  of  the  Oswego  Daily  Palladium 
wrote:  — 

"  The  city  of  Oswego  is  in  the  midst  of  a  profound  sorrow  to- 
day. One  who  was  enshrined  in  the  hearts  of  all  its  people,  from 
the  humblest  to  the  proudest,  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest,  is 
no  more.  No  man  in  all  this  community  was  ever  more  beloved 
than  Dr.  Sheldon.  No  announcement  could  have  brought  a  ruder 
shock  than  that  which  told  of  his  sudden  death  this  morning.  In 
the  presence  of  a  grief  that  touches  every  heart,  the  editorial  pen 
falters." 

The  Oswego  Daily  Times  called  his  "  life  so  blameless 
and  akin  to  worth  and  goodness  that  evil  seemed  no 
part  of  his  pure  and  exceptional  nature.  All  knew  him, 
all  loved  him,  and  all  will  mourn  his  departure  with  a 
unanimity  and  depth  of  feeling  that  is  or  could  be  the 
tribute  of  but  few.  Beyond  the  immediate  neighbor- 
hood of  his  daily  rounds  and  toil  he  will  be  missed  and 
mourned,  as  well  by  the  thousands  who  in  the  past  have 
come  within  the  sphere  of  his  personal  influence,  and 


PERSONALITIES   IN   THE   OSWEGO   MOVEMENT.  93 

carried  away  with  them  to  distant  parts  —  to  every  State 
in  the  Union,  and  to  lands  even  beyond  the  seas  —  the 
inspiration  of  that  influence,  whose  fruit  always  was  and 
will  be  the  enlightenment  and  advancement  of  humanity. 
His  loss  to  the  educational  forces,  not  of  the  State  alone, 
nor  yet  of  the  whole  country,  but  generally  throughout 
the  world,  cannot  easily  be  repaired,  —  a  field  in  which 
few  have  labored  longer,  more  assiduously,  or  achieved 
more  valuable  and  marked  results." 

The  way  in  which  Dr.  Sheldon's  character  had  pen- 
etrated every  portion  of  the  community  is  signally 
shown  in  an  incident  stated  at  the  funeral  by  the  Rev. 
Mr.  Wills :  — 

"  You  will  pardon  this,  I  know.  A  woman  in  the  common 
walks  of  life  paused  the  morning  of  the  doctor's  death  in  front  of 
the  school ;  and  seeing  there  the  evidences  of  mourning,  and  hav- 
ing ascertained  the  cause,  there  upon  the  corner  of  the  street  she 
bowed  her  head  and  wept  copiously  and  audibly." 

The  funeral  was  a  great  demonstration  of  Dr.  Shel- 
don's hold  upon  Oswego  and  the  educational  life  of  the 
State.  One  nearly  full-paged  account  opened  as  fol- 
lows :  — 

"  The  vast  throng,  representing  all  classes  and  conditions  of 
life,  which  filled  Grace  Church  yesterday  afternoon  indicated 
plainer  than  words  the  esteem  and  love  in  which  Dr.  Edward  A. 
Sheldon,  late  principal  of  the  Oswego  State  Normal  and  Train- 
ing-School  was  held  by  the  citizens  of  Oswego.  Xo  such  out- 
pouring has  been  seen  here'  in  years." 


94  THE   OSWEGO   NORMAL   SCHOOL. 

Floral  tributes  came  from  the  Department  of  Educa- 
tion, the  local  teachers,  and  his  own  faculty.  The 
same  account  states  that  "  a  large  number  of  the  city 
officials,  including  members  of  the  Common  Council, 
Department  of  Education,  Department  of  Works,  De- 
partment of  Charity  .  .  .  occupied  seats  in  the  church, 
as  did  two  hundred  school-teachers. 

Among  the  distinguished  educators  present  were 
State  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction,  Charles  R. 
Skinner  of  Albany ;  Dr.  James  M.  Cassidy,  Principal 
of  the  Buffalo  State  Normal  School ;  Dr.  T.  B.  Stowell, 
Principal  of  Potsdam  State  Normal  School ;  Dr.  Mc- 
Vicker,  formerly  Principal  of  Potsdam  Normal,  and  a 
warm  personal  friend  of  Dr.  Sheldon. 

Dr.  Sheldon's  death  called  forth  appreciative  notices 
from  the  press  at  large,  and  letters  and  telegrams  of 
sympathy  poured  in  upon  the  stricken  sister  and  chil- 
dren from  all  parts  of  the  country.  Among  them  was 
this  telegram  from  Colonel  Parker  of  the  Chicago  Nor- 
mal :  — 

"  Regret  exceedingly  that  I  cannot  be  present  at  the  last  sad 
rites.  I  have  loved  Dr.  Sheldon  for  many  years.  This  divine 
spirit  will  live  and  grow  forever  in  the  hearts  of  a  free  people. 
While  we  shall  miss  him  and  deeply  mourn  his  loss,  let  us  thank 
God  for  a  long  and  glorious  life  filled  with  righteousness. 

Feancis  "W".  Pabkbr." 

The  Local  Board  of  the  Oswego  State  Normal  and 
Training-School  held  a  special  meeting  the  Saturday 


PERSONALITIES   IN   THE   OSWEGO    MOVEMENT.  95 

after  Dr.  Sheldon's  death  to  pay  tributes  to  his  mem- 
ory. Two  of  its  members,  Hon.  Theodore  Irwin  and 
Mr.  Gilbert  MoUison,  were  members  of  the  original 
Board,  organized  by  Dr.  Sheldon  twenty-seven  years 
before.  Addresses  were  made  by  the  above-mentioned 
gentlemen ;  and  suitable  resolutions  were  drawn  by  a 
committee  composed  of  Judge  J.  C.  Churchill,  Hon. 
Theodore  Irwin,  and  Hon.  A.  S.  Page.  The  addresses 
and  resolutions  were  published  in  the  Oswego  papers, 
and  expressed  in  eloquent  words  the  great  services 
Dr.  Sheldon  had  rendered  to  the  city,  the  State,  and 
the  nation. 

The  Oswego  Teachers'  Association  held  a  memorial 
session  on  Saturday,  Oct.  2,  at  which  strong  addresses 
were  made  by  men  and  women  who  had  been  associated 
with  Dr.  Sheldon  in  his  educational  labors.  Professor 
C.  W.  Richards,  principal  of  the  Oswego  High  School, 
presided.  The  addresses  made  by  Hon.  George  B. 
Sloan  and  Professor  Amos  W.  Famham  were  published 
in  the  daily  papers. 

The  tributes  which  have  attracted  the  widest  atten- 
tion were  read  at  a  memorial  exercise  held  in  Normal 
Hall,  Oswego,  Thui-sday  evening,  Oct.  21. 

The  following  addresses  were  delivered  at  that 
time :  — 

The  Life  and  Character  of  Dr.  Sheldon. 

Professor  I.  B.  Pouch er. 

Dr.  Sheldon  as  We  Knew  Him. 

Miss  Serita  L.  Stewart. 


96  THE   OSWEGO  NORMAL   SCHOOL. 

Dt.  Sheldon^ s  Influence  on  Education  hi  New  York. 

Hon.  C.  R.  Skinneb,  LL.D. 

State  Supt.  of  Public  Instruction. 

The  Place  of  Dr.  Sheldon  in  the  Educational  World. 

Lewis  H.  Jones,  A.M. 

Supt.  of  Schools,  Cleveland,  Ohio, 

Dr.  Sheldon  and  the  Church. 

Rev.  David  Wills,  Jr. 

The  scholarly  addresses  of  Hon.  C.  R.  Skinner  and  Superintend- 
ent L.  H.  Jones  are  given  at  length  in  the  next  chapter,  as  is  also 
an  extended  extract  from  the  address  of  Professor  Poucher,  the 
nearly  life-long  associate  and  present  successor  of  Dr.  Sheldon. 

SOME   ASSOCL^TES   OF   DR.    SHELDON. 

Some  reference  has  already  been  made  to  Professor 
Hermann  Kriisi,  who,  with  Miss  M.  E.  M.  Jones  of  Eng- 
land, brought  the  Pestalozzian  torch  from  the  Old  World 
to  the  New.  Hermann  Kriisi  was  a  Pestalozzian  by  birth, 
having  been  born  in  Yverdon,  Switzerland,  the  place 
of  Pestalozzi's  famous  school.  His  father,  who  was  a 
teacher  in  Pestalozzi's  school,  subsequently  established 
a  normal  school  at  Gais ;  and  in  this  school  Hermann 
received  his  early  education,  supplementing  it  later  by 
studies  in  Dresden  and  Berlin  during  the  years  1835 
to  1838.  For  a  time  he  assisted  his  father  at  Gais; 
but  on  the  death  of  the  latter  accepted  a  position  in 
Dr.  Mayo's  School,  Cheam,  near  London.  Subsequently 
he  became  a  teacher  in  the  Home  and  Colonial  School, 
London,  where  he  arranged  his  famous  courses  in  inven- 
tive drawing,  a  work  which  was  soon  introduced  into 


PERSONALITIES   IN   THE   OSWEGO   MOVEMENT.  97 

America.  It  was  considerably  elaborated  at  Oswego, 
and  became  for  many  years  the  most  popular  series  of 
drawing-books  in  the  country. 

At  the  invitation  of  Professor  "Wm.  Russell,  in  1852 
he  came  to  America  to  work  in  Professor  Russell's  pri- 
vate normal  school  at  Lancaster,  Mass. ;  and  it  was  here 
he  wrote  his  valuable  book  on  perspective.  As  regular 
lecturer  before  the  Massachusetts  State  institutes  he 
became  associated  with  his  distinguished  countrymen, 
Agassiz  and  Guyot,  and  other  prominent  educators. 
Professor  Ki-iisi's  lectures  m  several  States,  and  publi- 
cations on  drawing,  were  revelations  to  the  people  at 
large  of  the  real  value  of  drawing  in  the  schools.  In 
1857  he  became  a  teacher  in  the  Trenton  (N.J.)  State 
Normal  School;  from  here  he  received  his  call  to 
Oswego,  and  here  at  Oswego  he  remained  for  twenty- 
five  years  a  faithful  and  efficient  exponent  of  his  noted 
fellow-countryman,  Pestalozzi.  His  first  work  at  Os-'^ 
wego  was  straight  to  the  point.  It  was  the  adaptation 
of  the  Pestalozzian  principles  to  the  work  in  number, 
form,  and  drawing  in  the  Oswego  schools- 
Professor  Kriisi  applied  his  inventive  system  to  the 
teaching  of  geometry  and  philosophy,  which  were  taught 
without  books,  guiding  himself  by  the  reason  and  inven- 
tive skill  of  his  students.  While  at  Oswego  Professor 
Kriisi  published  his  Life  of  Pestalozzi,  which  enjoyed 
a  wide  sale,  and  for  many  years  was  the  only  life  of 
Pestalozzi  accessible  to  English  readers. 

Professor  Kriisi's  work  is  thus  a  most  important  factor 


98  THE  OSWEGO   NORMAL  SCHOOL. 

in  the  development  of  Pestalozzian  principles  on  this 
continent ;  especially  can  his  personality  never  be  effaced 
from  Oswego  history.  His  manner  of  presentation  was 
clear  and  logical,  but  withal  charmingly  frank,  and  a 
genial  humor  constantly  played  about  the  topic  of  the 
hour.  After  a  short  visit  to  the  old  home.  Professor 
Kriisi  is  again  in  America,  enjoying  the  rest  his  eminent 
labors  have  doubly  earned  for  him. 

Miss  Matilda  S.  Cooper  (now  Mrs.  I,  B.  Poucher) 
was  graduated  from  the  Albany  Normal  in  1856.  She 
was  immediately  employed  in  the  Oswego  schools,  and 
on  the  organization  of  the  city  training-school  was 
appointed  one  of  the  critic  teachers,  an  appointment 
which  illustrates  one  valuable  characteristic  of  Dr  Shel- 
don's ;  namely,  the  power  to  recognize  a  true  teacher. 
The  fact  that  she  remained  identified  with  the  Oswego 
Normal  School  twenty-five  years  illustrates  another  and 
perhaps  rarer  power  of  Dr.  Sheldon's ;  namely,  the 
ability  to  hold  on  to  the  true  teacher.  So  also  her 
husband,  Professor  Poucher,  has  put,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  some  short  absences,  forty-nine  yeai-s  of  his 
life  into  the  Oswego  schools.  Professor  Kriisi,  we 
have  just  seen,  remained  at  his  post  twenty-five  years ; 
and  Dr.  Lee,  of  whom  we  shall  speak  later,  was  re- 
tained until  her  death,  eighteen  years. 

The  training  Miss  Cooper  had  received,  combined 
with  direct  and  conclusive  habits  of  thought,  enabled 
her  to  take  vigorous  hold  on  the  new  principles,  and 
make  them  yield  clearly  formulated  logical  results.     Of 


PERSONALITIES   IN   THE   OSWEGO   MOVEMENT.  99 

Miss  Cooper's  work  Professor  Aber  wrote  a  few  years 
ago :  — 

"  To  the  careful  and  unremitting  drill  of  her  method  and  prac- 
tice-school work  is  largely  due  the  fact  that  the  Oswego  Normal 
School  has  turned  out  so  large  a  product  of  successful  teachers  as 
compared  with  her  production  of  mere  talkers  and  essay  writers. 
No  one  else  deserves  so  much  credit  for  this  as  Miss  Cooper.  The 
maxims,  The  idea  before  the  word,  The  concrete  before  the 
abstract,  One  step  at  a  time,  Never  tell  the  child  what  he  can  find 
out  for  himself,  were  constantly  applied  by  her  as  the  plumb-line 
and  try-square  to  test  all  work.  Her  method  of  inculcating  prin- 
ciples and  teaching  the  art  of  questioning  was  philosophical." 

To  which  Dr.  Sheldon  adds  in  response  to  an  in- 
quiry :  — 

"  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Poucher  have  been  with  us  from  the  time  of  the 
organization  of  the  school,  and  perhaps  know  better  than  any  other 
persons  now  living  its  source  and  development." 

Professor  Isaac  B.  Poucher,  Dr.  Sheldon's  successor, 
has  had  a  long  and  honorable  share  in  Oswego's  growth. 
He  was  graduated  from  the  Albany  Normal  in  1847, 
and  the  next  year  began  his  career  in  Oswego  in  what 
was  known  as  the  "  red  schoolhouse."  The  fashion  in 
the  color  of  schoolhouses  must  have  changed  soon  after 
that,  for  his  next  school-teaching  was  done  in  the 
"  yellow  schoolhouse." 

From  here  Professor  Poucher  was  promoted  to  the 
principalship  of  the  Oswego  Academy,  which  occupied 
the   site    of    the    present   high   school.     In    1852    the 


s^ 


100  THE   OSWEGO  NORMAL  SCHOOL. 

young  professor  decided  to  exchange  his  profession  for 
that  of  medicine,  and  to  that  end  resigned  his  principal- 
ship,  and  matriculated  in  the  medical  department  of  the 
University  of  New  York.  At  the  close  of  the  first  six 
months'  course  of  lectures  Mr.  Poucher  resumed  his 
former  work  at  the  academy,  pui-posing  to  return  to 
New  York  in  October.  But  fate  ruled  otherwise  ;  for 
agreeing  temporarily  to  take  the  place  of  a  sick  teacher, 
upon  the  death  of  the  teacher  Professor  Poucher  was 
prevailed  upon  to  continue  his  work,  and  in  1855  was 
installed  in  a  new  school  building  as  associate  principal 
with  Mr.  Douglass.  In  1859  he  was  called  upon  to 
christen  another  new  school  building ;  and  here  he  was 
allowed  to  remain  until  Dr.  Sheldon  selected  him,  in 
18G7,  for  principal  of  the  Oswego  Normal  Practice 
School,  and  instructor  in  mathematics.  Professor 
Poucher  proved  himself  in  his  element  in  the  chair  of 
mathematics,  and  made  his  department  one  of  the 
strongest  in  the  normal  school.  He  applied  the  Pesta- 
lozzian  principles  to  mathematical  instruction  along  the 
lines  marked  out  by  Professor  Kriisi,  —  dispensing 
with  text-books  in  both  algebra  and  geometry,  work- 
ing out  with  the  student  independently  and  with  rigid 
logic  his  own  text-book.  Students  of  his  always  speak 
of  the  convincing  clearness  with  which  he  developed 
a  line  of  mathematical  reasoning.  His  syllabus  of  arith- 
metic is  a  good  example  of  this. 

In  1885  Professor  Poucher  was  appointed  Collector 
of  United  States  Customs  at  the  port  of  Oswego,  but  on 


PERSONALITIES  IN    THE   OSWEGO   MOVEMENT.       101 

leaving  that  position  resumed  his  old  work  in  the  nor- 
mal school.  Professor  Poucher  was  always  very  popular 
with  the  normal  students,  and  his  general  pedagogical 
as  well  as  business  ability  made  him  equally  respected 
in  the  faculty.  Dr.  Sheldon  and  the  Board  soon  came 
to  rely  upon  him  in  times  of  emergency ;  and  during  a 
two  years'  absence  of  Dr.  Sheldon,  Professor  Poucher 
was  installed  acting  principal.  His  recent  unanimous 
appointment  by  the  Local  Board  of  the  Oswego  Normal 
School  as  Dr.  Sheldon's  successor,  and  its  immediate 
approval  by  the  State  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruc- 
tion, was  not  entirely  unexpected,  and  has  been  received 
with  universal  satisfaction  by  the  alumni  and  students 
of  the  Oswego  Normal  School. 

In  1858  Professor  Poucher  married  Miss  Katharine 
L.  Allen,  by  whom  he  had  three  children,  —  W.  Allen, 
Katharine  M.,  and  Lucy  Augusta.  W.  Allen  Poucher 
has  been  Special  Deputy  Collector  of  Customs  of  the 
District  of  Oswego,  N.Y.  Miss  Katharine  M.  Poucher 
is  now  Mrs.  E.  W.  McColm  of  Columbus,  Ohio.  Miss 
Lucy  Augusta  Poucher  is  now  Mrs.  Albert  E.  Nettleton 
of  Syracuse,  N.Y.  Professor  Poucher's  wife  died  in 
December,  1881. 

In  1890  Professor  Poucher  married  Miss  M.  S. 
Cooper,  and  thus  very  fittingly  brought  together  two 
lives  that  had  long  been  engaged  in  a  common  work  for 
the  institution  of  which  he  has  just  now  become  the 
honored  head. 

Dr.  Mary  V.  Lee  was  one  of  the  most  original,  posi- 


102  THE   OSWEGO   NORMAL   SCHOOL. 

tive,  and  at  the  same  time  charming  personalities 
connected  with  the  Oswego  Movement.  She  was 
graduated  in  1860  from  the  New  Britain  (Conn.)  Nor- 
mal School,  and  in  the  spring  of  1862  was  selected  by 
State  Superintendent  Camp  to  go  to  Oswego  to  learn  the 
Pestalozzian  methods.  In  the  fall  of  the  same  year,  in 
company  with  Mrs.  Mary  E.  McGonegal,  she  opened 
the  Davenport  (Iowa)  Training-School  for  teachers, 
under  the  direction  of  Superintendent  Kissel.  "  In 
the  spring  of  1865  she  became  Professor  W.  F.  Phelps's 
first  assistant  in  the  normal  school  of  Winona,  Minn. 
While  in  Minnesota  she  often  attended  institutes  and 
Sunday-school  conventions,  where  she  gave  lessons. 
These  lessons  led  to  a  memorable  summer  spent  with 
the  great  preacher  D.  L.  Moody,  who  brought  her  to 
Illinois  that  she  might  give  before  bodies  of  Sunday- 
school  teachers  lessons  taught  in  accord  with  Pesta- 
lozzian principles."  At  Winona  Dr.  Lee  wrote  a  gram- 
mar based  upon  Pestalozzian  methods,  published  as 
Lee  and  Hadley^B  Grammar.  In  1874  she  was  gradu- 
ated from  the  Medical  Department  of  Michigan  Univer- 
sity, and  immediately  became  the  teacher  of  physiology 
at  her  alma  mater,  the  Oswego  Normal  School,  "prac- 
tising medicine  as  school  duties  would  permit."  In 
1880  she  went  abroad  with  Miss  Mary  D.  Sheldon, 
spending  two  years  in  visiting  in  Great  Britain  and  on 
the  Continent.  The  last  year  she  was  an  "out  student" 
at  Cambridge  University,  devoting  her  time  to  physi- 
ology and  biology.     Upon  her  return  to  America  she 


Dr.   MARY  V.   LEE. 


PERSONALITIES  IN  THE  OSWEGO  MOVEMENT.       103 

resumed  the  teaching  of  Physiology,  and  worked  out 
rational  methods  of  teaching  zoology,  botany,  the  human 
body,  and  reading.  About  this  time  Dr.  Lee  became 
convinced  of  the  merits  of  the  Delsarte  system  of  physi- 
cal culture,  and  successfully  introduced  it  at  Oswego. 
She  died  at  her  post  in  the  summer  of  1892,  having 
been  a  teacher  at  Oswego  eighteen  years. 

Such  in  bare  outline  is  the  record  of  a  life  remarkable 
alike  for  its  strong  convictions  and  its  openness  to  truth. 
Her  thought  and  its  expression  were  strikingly  direct 
and  original,  and  her  audiences  were  never  bored  by 
dull  speaking.  This  characteristic  brought  her  in  fre- 
quent demand  as  a  public  speaker  upon  educational  and 
other  topics  which  won  her  sympathies ;  for  Dr.  Lee  was 
many  sided  in  her  interests,  leaning  especially  to  those 
which  she  believed  made  for  righteousness  in  individual 
and  national  character.  She  gave  up  a  lucrative  prac- 
tice in  medicine,  and  rejected  many  tempting  offers,  it  is 
said,  that  she  might  annually  have  the  opportunity  of 
impressing  those  who  were  to  be  the  instructors  of  youth 
with  the  importance  of  maintaining  pure  bodies,  free  from 
the  tyranny  of  fashion,  of  drink,  and  of  narcotics.  Dr. 
Lee  possessed  the  kindest  of  hearts,  and  was  prodi- 
gal of  time  and  affection  to  those  in  need,  as  hun- 
dreds of  Oswego  students  would  gladly  testify.  Her 
memory  is  most  fittingly  kept  green  at  Oswego  by  the 
Dr.  Lee  Memorial  Fund,  which  provides  aid  to  worthy 
students  and  occasional  lectures  to  the  whole  student 
body. 


104  THE  OSWEGO   NORMAL  SCHOOL. 

Professor  H.  H.  Straight  deserves  a  place  in  Oswego 
history  for  his  philosophical  work  with  the  natural 
sciences,  accomplished  first  at  Oswego,  and  later  at  the 
Cook  County  Normal.  He  left  Oberlin  a  young  theo- 
logical student  somewhat  experienced  in  teaching,  to  be- 
come the  principal  of  the  State  Normal  School  at  Peru, 
Neb.  Reversing  the  course  proclaimed  by  the  poet, 
instead  of  nature's  leading  him  to  nature's  God,  his 
study  of  God  had  led  him  to  nature ;  and  at  Peru  he 
resigned  the  principalship  that  he  might  devote  himself 
to  the  problem  of  working  out  rational  methods  for 
teaching  science  in  the  chair  of  natural  science  and 
psychology  in  that  institution.  Shortly  after  this  Pro- 
fessor Straight  went  to  school  to  Agassiz,  who  straight- 
way became  his  controlling  inspiration.  In  1875  he 
accompanied  Professor  N.  S.  Shaler  of  Harvard,  and  the 
State  geologist  of  North  Carolina,  in  several  geological 
expeditions.  The  following  two  years  were  spent  in 
special  study  at  Cornell  and  Harvard.  In  1878  he 
accepted  the  chair  of  natural  sciences  in  the  Oswego 
Normal  School.  Here  he  planned  the  excellent  sys- 
tem of  laboratories  with  which  the  Oswego  Normal  is 
equipped,  and  here  he  proved  conclusively  the  practica- 
bility of  experimental  work  in  large  classes.  At  Oswego 
Professor  Straight's  pedagogical  insight  gave  him  the 
entire  charge  of  the  practice  school,  and  later  he  taught 
classes  in  history  and  philosophy  of  education.  This 
range  of  work  enabled  him  to  see  beyond  the  boun- 
daries of  the  natural  sciences,  and  to  perceive  clearly, 


PERSONALITIES   IN  THE   OSWEGK)   MOVEMENT.       105 

what  the  schools  are  but  beginning  to  recognize  through 
Herbart's  pedagogy,  that  nature  is  a  unity,  and  all  sub- 
jects of  study  have  vital  relations  with  one  another. 
His  work  at  Oswego  in  this  line  was  several  years  in 
advance  of  the  Herbartian  wave  in  this  country.  Pro- 
fessor Straight,  was  a  popular  lecturer,  and  frequently 
gave  courses  of  lectures  at  Martha's  Vineyard ;  Froebel 
Academy,  Brooklyn ;  Summer  School  of  Science,  Salem, 
Mass.;  and  other  places. 

His  work  in  the  Cook  County  Normal  may  be  judged 
by  the  opinion  of  Colonel  Parker,  who  said  that  the 
most  perfect  primary  teaching  he  has  ever  seen  was 
done  under  the  direction  of  Professor  Straight.  Profes- 
sor Straight's  legacy  must  be  the  direct  inspirations  he 
gave  to  his  pupils  at  the  various  centres  where  his  influ- 
ence was  felt.  But  a  small  portion  of  his  actual  work 
found  its  way  into  print.  He  did  not  care  for  fame  or 
money.  He  died  Nov.  17,  1886.  His  wife,  Mre.  Emma 
Dickerman  Straight,  shared  her  husband's  pedagogical 
zeal  and  skill,  having  taught  with  marked  success  in 
the  Nebraska  State  Normal  School,  the  Oswego  Normal, 
the  Cook  County  Normal,  and  in  the  schools  of  Tokio, 
Japan.     She  died  in  1890. 

There  are  many  others  whose  work  in  the  perfecting 
and  spread  of  the  Oswego  methods  deserves  fuller  treat- 
ment, but  of  whom  only  brief  mention  can  be  made  here. 

The  general  method  and  spirit  of  Miss  Cooper's  work 
in  the  method  and  practice  department  at  Oswego  was 
admirably  retained  in  the  superior  work  of  Miss  S.  J. 


106  THE  OSWEGO   NORMAL   SCHOOL. 

Walter,  who  was  connected  with  the  Oswego  practice 
schools  for  nearly  twenty-five  years,  and  from  1881  to 
1894  was  the  efficient  principal  of  the  consolidated 
practice  schools.  She  is  at  present  occupying  a  similar 
position  in  the  State  Normal  School  at  Willimantic, 
Conn.,  and  has  recently  published  her  latest  thought 
upon  arithmetic  teaching,  a  line  of  work  which  she  de- 
veloped with  great  clearness  and  force  in  the  Oswego 
practice  schools. 

In  recent  years  Miss  Margaret  K.  Smith  of  the  class 
of  '83  has  done  some  important  work  in  the  later  devel- 
opments of  the  psychological  side  of  Pestalozzi's  work, 
especially  through  Herbart.  Upon  her  graduation  Miss 
Smith  taught  a  while  at  Atlanta  University.  The  book 
published  from  the  results  of  her  work  here  has  already 
been  mentioned.^  Later  Miss  Smith  was  called  to  take 
the  chair  of  school  of  economy  and  methods  in  the  State 
Normal  at  Peru,  Neb.  In  1885  she  went  to  Germany 
to  study  systems  of  pedagogy.  Two  years  later  she 
became  teacher  of  psychology  at  the  Oswego  institution. 

In  1892,  at  the  solicitation  of  Dr.  William  Harris, 
United  States  Commissioner  of  Education,  Miss  Smith 
translated  Herbart's  Psychology  into  English  for  the 
International  Educational  Series,  of  which  Dr.  Harris 
is  the  editor.  It  was  the  first  English  translation  of 
that  important  work,  and  contributed  its  share  to  the 
present  interest  in  Herbart  in  this  country.  Miss  Smith 
has  also  translated  a  work  on  industrial  education  for 

1  De  Graff  and  Smith's  Development  Ijessons. 


( 


Professor  EARL   BARNES. 


PERSONALITIES   IN   THE   OSWEGO   MOVEMENT.       107 

the  D.  C.  Heath  Publishing  Company ;  and  she  was  also 
one  of  the  translators  of  Lang's  Apperception^  published 
by  the  same  firm.  Miss  Smith  has  done  her  share  of 
writing  for  the  r,iagazines,  and  contributes  book  reviews 
to  the  School  Review  published  at  Chicago  University. 
At  present  she  in  at  work  in  psychology  and  history  in 
the  University  ol-  Gottingen,  Germany. 

Mention  has  al-eady  been  made  in  these  pages  of  the 
work  of  Earl  Barnes,  '84,  and  Mary  Sheldon  Barnes, 
'69. 

The  following  account  of  Professor  Earl  Barnes  is 
taken  from  an  educational  journal:  — 

"  Earl  Barnes,  professor  of  education  in  the  Leland  Stanford 
Jr.  University,  was  born  near  Oswego,  N.Y.,  in  1861.  He  was 
educated  in  the  common  country  and  village  schools,  and  gradu- 
ated from  the  advanced  course  in  the  Oswego  Normal  School  as 
president  of  his  class  in  1884.  Meantime  he  had  had  two  years' 
experience  in  teaching  count/y  and  village  schools.  After  gradu- 
ating from  Oswego  he  taught  Jtor  two  years  in  a  German  academy 
at  Hoboken,  N.J.,  and  then  ente>red  Cornell  University  as  a  special 
student  in  American  history.  While  a  student  in  Cornell  Uni- 
versity he  went  abroad  with  hm  wife,  Mary  Sheldon  Barnes, 
author  of  Sheldon's  series  of  histosries,  and  spent  a  year  gather- 
ing historical  materials  for  President  Andrew  D.  White,  and  study- 
ing in  the  University  of  Zurich.  After  his  return  to  Cornell,  and 
while  still  an  undergraduate,  he  was  t»-^ndered  the  professorship 
of  European  history  in  Indiana  State  Un  iversity.  While  teach- 
ing in  Indiana  he  took  his  A.  B.  degree  w:ith  the  class  of  1890. 
The  year  after  he  was  given  leave  of  absence,  and  spent  the  year 
in  Cornell  University  doing  postgraduate  worJc,  taking  his  A.  M. 
degree  at  the  end  of  the  year. 


108  THE  OSWEGO  NORMAL   SCHOOL. 

"  When  the  Leland  Stanford  Jr.  University  was  established  in 
California,  Mr.  Barnes  was  one  of  the  original  fifteen  men  selected 
by  Dr,  Jordan  to  begin  the  work  in  that  instirul^oa-^  and  the  de- 
partment of  education  which  he  has  built  uj)  here  is  now  one  of 
the  most  flourishing  in  the  United  States.  During  the  last  three 
years  Mr.  Barnes  has  become  generally  known  through  hia  stud- 
ies on  children,  though  his  strongest  wuik  i&  along  the  lines  of 
the  history  of  civilization."  , 

/ 
Shortly  after  her  graduation,  Miss  Sheldon  entered 
Michigan  University,  taking  largely  scientific  studies. 
She  graduated  here  in  1874.  And  now,  to  use  Miss 
Sheldon's  original  words,  she  was  "  greatly  disappointed 
at  being  invited  to  return  to  Oswego  to  teach  Latin, 
Greek,  botany,  and  history,  instead  of  a  range  of 
sciences  ;  revenges  herself  by  applying  scientific  meth- 
ods to  history ;  becomes  interested  in  her  revenge,  and 
projects  a  book,  '  O  that  mine  <CTiemy  would  write  a 
book !  '  determines  to  devote  herself  to  completing  this 
idea."  In  1876  she  accepted,  the  chair  of  history  at 
Wellesley  College,  and  in  1880  entered  Cambridge 
University,  England,  to  stutdy  modern  history  under 
Professor  J.  11/  Seeley.  In  1882  Miss  Sheldon  became 
the  teacher  of  history  and  literature  at  Oswego,  where 
she  finally  worked  out  and  published  Studies  in  General 
History  (D.  C.  Heath.,  Boston),  which,  notwithstanding 
its  radical  departure's  from  conventional  school  histories, 
and  the  difficult  nature  of  the  work  it  demands  of  stu- 
dents as  opposed  to  the  time-honored  memory  work, 
still  enjoys  an  increasing  popularity,  and  was  the  pio- 


^ 


Mrs.   MAkY   SHE;lD0N    BARNES. 


PERSONALITD  SS   IN   THE   OSWEGO   MOVEMENT.       109 

neer  in  a  growing  movement  which  is  already  influen- 
cing both  the  w  riting  and  teaching  of  history  in  this 
country.  Since  her  marriage  to  Mr.  Earl  Barnes  in 
1884,  Mrs.  Barnes  has  studied  at  Cornell  University, 
and  spent  a  year  iabroad  in  collecting  material  for  Pres- 
ident White.  In  1891  she  published  Studies  in  Ameri- 
can History  along*  lines  similar  to  those  followed  in  her 
earlier  text-book.'  She  is  now  assistant  professor  of 
history  at  Leland  Stanford,  where  her  husband  is  pro- 
fessor of  education.^ 

Miss  Mary  R.  Ailing,  class  of  '69  (now  Mrs.  Mary  R. 
Alling-Aber),  has  had  a  varied  and  useful  pedagogical 
career,  principally  in  normal  schools.  In  1870  she 
was  principal  of  the  p?;actice  department  of  the  city 
Normal  and  Training-^hool,  Cincinnati,  Ohio.  For 
three  years  subsequently  she  taught  in  the  Oswego 
Normal.  In  1875  she  spent  a  year  on  the  faculty  of 
the  Cook  County  Normal  School* under  Professor  Par- 
ker. In  1880  she  taught  in  the  State  Normal  School 
at  Providence,  R.I. ;  and  the  next  three  years  were  spent 
as  principal  of  the  primary  department  of  Miss  Shaw's 
school,  Boston.  It  was  m  connection  with  this  school 
that  Miss  Ailing  conducted  an  experiment  in  education 
which  attracted  considerablt,  attention.  An  account  of 
it  can  be  found  in  the  preface  to  her  boolj,  The  Chil- 
drenh  Own  Work,  and  in  tW(  articles  in  the  Popular 
Science  Monthly  (1890)  on  "An  Experiment  in  Edu- 

1  Professor  Earl  Barnes  and  his  wife  havt  left  their  work  at  Leland 
Stanford  for  further  study  in  Europe. 


110  THE   OSWEGO   NORMAL   SCH\OOL. 

cation."  Miss  Ailing  has  been  a  freqi>ent  contributor 
to  the  New  England  Journal  of  Educa\tion.  Her  writ- 
ings have  lately  been  collected,  and  fori  n  the  main  sub- 
stance of  a  book  ^  now  in  the  press  of  1  larper  Brothers, 
and  which  promises  to  be  an  interesting:  contribution  to 
the  pedagogy  of  the  year.  In  1884  Mis^  Ailing  married 
Mr.  William  M.  Aber,  also  an  Oswego  jgraduate,  who  is 
now  at  the  head  of  the  department  of  /Latin  and  Greek 
in  the  University  of  Montana.  Profes/sor  Aber's  article 
in  the  Popular  Science  Monthly  for  Mai,y,  1893,  on  "The 
Oswego  State  Normal  School,"  has  been  freely  drawn 
on  for  this  sketch. 

Miss  Mary  E.  Laing,  class  of  '74,  has  represented  Os- 
wego ideas  in  the  normal  schools  of  St.  Cloud,  Minn., 
and  Platte ville,  Wis.  The  justly  celebrated  Froebel 
Academy,  Brooklyn,  is  her  creaticn.  Miss  Laing  has 
studied  psychology  and  pedagogy  in  Zurich,  Jena,  and 
Gottingen.  Her  work  in  child  str.dy  has  been  described 
in  the  May,  1894,  Forum.     At  present  Miss  Laing  is 

1  This  book,  An  Experiment  in  Education,  has  just  appeared,  and  is 
attracting  unusual  attention. 

"  An  Experiment  in  Education,  \y  Mary  R.  Alling-Aber  (244  pp. 
$1.25),  possesses  unusual  interest.  —  iiterest  like  that  awakened  by  Mrs. 
Aiken's  Methods  of  Mind  Training.  ...  If  these  results  are  made  out, 
and  they  seem  to  us  made  out,  the  t  ork  of  our  elementary  schools  ought 
to  be  entirely  recast,  so  as  to  emboxy  in  them  the  ideas  presented  in  this 
volume.  This  statement  alone  vJl  be  sufficient  to  justify  the  plea  with 
which  the  volume  concludes,  —  or  the  establishment  of  educational  ex- 
periment stations.  This  volune,  though  small  in  size,  seems  to  us  one 
of  the  most  valuable  and  stimulating  which  has  appeared  in  a  long 
time." —  Wisconsin  JouT^al of  Education,  edited  by  Dr.  J.  W.  Steams 
of  the  University  of  "Wiscotsin. 


PERSONALITIES   IN   THE   OSWEGO   MOVEMENT.       Ill 

successfully  carrying  out  her  views  in  this  interesting 
field  at  Oswego,  where  she  is  teacher  of  psychology 
and  pedagogy. 

Lady  graduates  from  Oswego  have  frequently  been 
pioneers  in  securing  recognition  for  their  sex  as  school 
officers.  One  lady  graduate  of  the  first  class  served  five 
years  as  county  superintendent  in  Washington  Terri- 
tory, and  five  years  as  member  of  the  Territorial  Board 
of  Education.  Another  lady  graduate  has  been  super- 
intendent of  public  schools  of  Iowa  City,  Iowa.  Still 
another  was  State  institute  conductor  of  Minnesota. 
Lady  graduates  of  Oswego  have  served  as  county  super- 
intendents in  New  York  State,  while  a  recent  lady  grad- 
uate was  a  member  of  the  State  Council  of  Nebraska. 

These  life  sketches  show  in  concrete  fashion  how 
Oswego  has  influenced  the  art  of  teaching  in  even 
remote  sections  of  our  country,  and  also  that  her  grad- 
uates are  growing  people,  —  men  and  women  who  fre- 
quently stop  right  in  the  midst  of  successful  teaching 
to  study  again  in  the  best  schools  at  home  and  abroad. 
This  characteristic  is  an  important  one,  and  speaks  well 
for  the  kind  of  ideals  established  at  Alma  Mater. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

EXTRACTS   FROM    ADDRESSES 

Delivered  at  a  Memorial  Exercise  held  in  Honor  of 
Dr.  Sheldon,  at  Oswego,  N.Y.,  Oct.  21,  1897. 

DR.  Sheldon's  influence  on  education  in 

NEW   YORK. 

Hon.  Charles  R.  Skinner,  New  York  State  Superintendent  of 
Public  Instruction. 

For  more  than  half  a  century  Edward  Austin  Sheldon 
gave  himself,  body,  soul,  and  spirit,  to  the  work  of  edu- 
cation. Courageous,  sincere,  enthusiastic,  patient,  per- 
severing, he  overcame  difficulties,  removed  obstacles, 
won  victories,  where  others  with  judgment  less  cool, 
with  zeal  less  intense,  would  have  been  disheartened  and 
driven  from  the  field.  We  rejoice  that  these  fifty  years 
of  service  were  giv6n  to  education  in  our  own  State,  and 
that  we  are  the  inheritors  of  the  fruit  of  his  labors. 


Loving  friends  have  told  us  the  charming  story  of  his 

useful  life.     They  have  told  us  of  his  Puritan  birth,  of 

his  home  and  its  congenial  surroundings,   of  his  early 

^y     struggles,  his  college  longings  and  experience,  —  how 

he  came  to  Oswego  to  meet  his  first  discouragement  in 

112 


EXTRACTS  FROM  ADDRESSES.  113 

business  ;  how  he  became  interested,  in  the  free-school 
movement  which  he  was  compelled  to  abandon;  how 
he  organized  the  schools  of  Syracuse,  and  gave  them  an 
impetus  they  still  feel ;  how  he  was  called  back  to  Os- 
wego by  the  free-school  party ;  how  he  laid  his  plans 
for  advanced  instruction  in  the  principles  and  methods  of 
teaching ;  how  in  spite  of  fierce  opposition  and  ridicule 
he  steadfastly  interested  State  and  country  in  object- 
teaching,  and  established  it  forever  as  a  mighty  force 
in  education ;  how,  believing  in  patriotic  citizenship, 
he  offered  his  services  to  his  country  to  preserve  the 
Union  which  he  loved;  how  his  plans  developed  into 
a  school  for  the  training  of  primary  teachers ;  how  the 
Legislature  came  to  his  aid  in  1862  through  the  sym- 
pathy of  the  State  superintendent ;  how  in  1867  the 
Oswego  Normal-School  was  accepted,  as  a  part  of  the 
great  normal-school  system  of  the  State ;  how  for 
thirty  years  he  worked  "  like  a  Hercules"  as  its  princi- 
pal ;  how  he  resisted  tempting  offers  to  honorable  fields 
elsewhere,  preferring  to  finish  his  work  here ;  how  he 
was  called  into  other  States  to  assist  in  organizing 
method  schools  upon  his  plan ;  how  men  and  women 
were  attracted  from  every  county  and  State  and  coun- 
try to  come  within  the  charmed  circle  of  his  influence, 
and  how  they  became  instruments  in  extending  that 
influence,  and  in  organizing  similar  schools  in  other 
States  and  countries ;  how,  inspired  by  his  growing 
success,  institutions  were  founded  to  uplift  the  colored 
people  of  the  South;  how  echoes  of  his  influence  came 


114  THE  OSWEGO  NORMAL  SCHOOL. 

from  the  republics  of  South  America,  the  Sandwich 
Islands,  and  from  far-away  Japan;  how  his  methods 
received  the  indorsement  of  the  National  Educational 
Association ;  how  he  wrote  the  books  which  have  helped 
others  and  extended  his  power  for  good;  how  at  the 
great  Columbian  Exposition  he  was  an  honored  figure  in 
educational  deliberations,  and  received  a  medal  of  honor 
for  his  beloved  institution  "  for  excellence  of  equipment, 
method,  and  wise  usefulness ;  "  and,  how  finally  discour- 
agement gave  place  to  hope,  and  defeat  was  crowned 
with  glorious  victory.  Surely  the  "  end  crowned  the 
work,"  and  patient,  self-sacrificing  service  had  its  re- 
ward. 

The  central  thought  which  moves  us  now  is  that  he 
was  the  first  great  advocate  in  this  country  of  the  prop- 
osition that  children  should  be  taught  according  to  cer- 
tain fixed  natural  laws,  which  always  have  and  always 
will  govern  the  development  of  children,  and  determine 
their  possibilities.  Believing  in  the  doctrines  of  Pes- 
talozzi  and  Froebel,  he  was  their  most  distinguished 
representative  in  this  country,  and  the  first  to  point  out 
the  necessity  of  observing  in  the  training  of  children  cer- 
tain unchangeable  laws  of  nature  which  could  not  be 
violated  without  spoiling  life.  Mythology  made  nature 
an  enemy,  and  pictured  it  in  hideous  forms.  It  was 
reserved  for  modern  philosophers,  and  Dr.  Sheldon  was 
one  of  these,  to  regard  nature  as  a  friend  and  not  an 
enemy,  —  something  that  should  be  studied  and  loved. 


EXTRACTS   FROM   ADDRESSES.  115 

He  believed  that  every  child  represented  nature  as  much 
as  a  tree  or  flower,  and  should  be  studied  and  taught 
by  natural  methods.  He  believed  that  education  is  a 
growth,  a  natural  development,  not  adding  to,  but 
bringing  out  by  proper  method ;  that  children  are  not 
all  to  be  measured  by  one  standard  or  governed  by 
one  law,  or  their  character  and  usefulness  in  life  deter- 
mined by  the  arbitrary  rules  of  per  centum  calculations 
and  estimates. 

He  said  of  his  work  many  years  ago,  "  In  this  plan 
of  studies  the  object  is  not  so  much  to  impart  informa- 
tion, as  to  educate  the  senses  and  awaken  a  spirit  of 
inquiry.  To  this  end  the  pupils  must  be  encouraged 
to  do  most  of  their  talking  and  acting."  In  1873  he 
said,  in  an  address  to  the  students  at  the  Geneseo  Nor- 
mal School,  "I  may  judge  your  work  by  a  standard 
which  you  do  not  recognize.  I  cannot  determine  the 
education  of  a  child  by  its  ability  to  answer  questions 
in  a  given  way.  These  answers  may  be  learned  from 
books.  Rather  let  me  ask  a  question  to  which  they 
have  not  learned  an  answer  from  the  text-book,  and  let 
them  give  an  answer  in  their  own  language  from  their 
own  thought." 

Was  this  the  new  education  ?  Whether  new  or  old, 
it  worked  a  revolution  in  educational  methods  —  in  the 
proper  treatment  of  the  children.  When  the  world  be- 
came convinced  that  object-teaching  was  related  to  the 
happiness  of  its  children,  when  it  was  certain  that  it 
could  not  be  laughed  down  nor  stamped  out,  this  school 


116  THE  OSWEGO   NORMAL  SCHOOL. 

and  Dr.  Sheldon's  efiforts  became  centres  of  observation. 
They  were  the  Mecca  to  all  teachers  who  had  been  led 
to  believe  there  was  a  simpler,  better  way  to  teach  chil- 
dren. His  work  led  educators  to  give  attention;  and 
when  they  began  to  think,  conviction  came.  It  was  not 
a  momentary  flash,  a  passing  thought  or  fancy,  but  a 
settled  conviction.  He  was  always  in  earnest ;  and  be- 
cause he  was  in  earnest,  he  convinced  the  thoughtful 
and  won  victories.  He  bravely  defended  the  convic- 
tions of  his  own  conscience  on  intellectual  battlefields, 
which  he  never  left  except  as  conqueror.  Through  his 
work  and  his  influence  in  first  attracting  attention  to 
this  new  principle  in  the  education  of  children,  he  helped 
to  lay  broad  and  deep  the  foundations  of  a  system 
which  will  never  again  be  questioned  or  attacked,  but 
which  to-day  recognizes  the  power  and  scope  and  the 
possibilities  of  the  kindergarten  as  a  living,  vital  force 
in  education,  and  places  it  within  reach  of  millions  of 
our  children.  It  is  no  longer  an  experiment,  but  a  set- 
tled fact;  and  the  State  now  knows  what  it  means  to 
lead  children  early  to  think  and  do  for  themselves. 
Bieyond  this,  the  influence  which  he  exerted  through 
all  these  years  has  led  our  educators  into  other  avenues 
of  thought,  and  the  principles  which  he  advocated  have 
developed  well-organized  plans  of  investigation.  As  a 
result,  whatever  is  practical  or  valuable  in  child  study 
and  nature  study,  as  we  find  them,  comes  largely 
through  his  teaching. 


EXTRACTS   FROM   ADDRESSES.  117 

Behind  his  profession,  behind  his  work,  stood  the 
man.  His  sterling  manhood  shone  out  in  all  he  did 
through  his  whole  professional  life. 

As  an  author  of  educational  works  he  breathed  his 
sympathetic  spirit  into  his  books,  and  the  influence  of  his 
thought  and  personality  went  wherever  his  words  were 
read ;  and  who  can  tell  the  power  of  a  written  word 
conceived  in  the  hope  of  helping  others?  Through  the 
printed  page  he  multiplied  his  influence  over  teachers 
and  pupils,  and  perpetuated  his  power.  His  advanced 
thought,  his  clear  statement,  his  mastery  of  the  subject, 
and  his  conscientious  purpose  made  him  as  successful  in 
touching  the  lives  of  his  readers  as  in  personal  contact 
with  those  he  taught. 

In  the  educational  associations  of  the  State  and  coun- 
try he  was  always  welcome,  and  took  a  deep  interest, 
not  only  in  promoting  their  objects,  but  in  the  discus- 
sions which  they  furnished.  Even  if  his  associates  dif- 
fered with  him,  they  admired  his  rugged  sincerity,  his 
earnestness  of  purpose,  and  the  courteous  bravery  of  his 
gentle  speech.  He  was  everybody's  friend  ;  he  had  no 
enemies  in  the  educational  field,  and  was  never  pro- 
voked in  debate  beyond  the  bounds  of  kindly  firmness. 
The  influence  which  he  exerted  in  these  associations 
was  always  in  the  direction  of  higher  standards.  His 
last  educational  visit  was  to  Milwaukee,  where  his  face, 
like  a  loving  benediction,  smiled  upon  those  who  gath- 
ered in  the  National  Educational  Association,  a  most 
familiar  figure ;  and  my  last  look  upon  my  friend  was 


118  THE  OSWEGO  NORMAL   SCHOOL. 

as  he  mingled  happily  with  the  vast  concourse  of  edu- 
cators which  gathered  there. 


His  ideas  will  not  perish.  They  have  taken  too  deep 
root.  It  is  for  us,  then,  as  we  feel  the  influence  of  his 
life,  his  work,  and  his  friendship,  to  carry  on  the  labor 
for  education  and  humanity  which  he  left  unfinished. 
We  who  knew  him  well,  and  were  with  him  in  spirit 
and  heart,  must  follow  him  in  the  path  made  easier  and 
more  luminous  for  his  zeal  and  enthusiasm.  That  which 
Frederick  Douglass  said  of  the  immortal  Lincoln  may 
be  repeated  of  our  associate :  "  He  could  receive  counsel 
from  a  child,  and  give  counsel  to  a  sage.  The  simple 
approached  him  with  ease,  and  the  learned  approached 
him  with  deference." 

He  loved  his  work,  and  put  into  it  all  the  strength  of 
his  calm  mind,  tender  heart,  and  trained  understanding. 
His  enthusiasm  for  his  profession  was  so  infectious  that 
no  one  whose  privilege  it  was  to  counsel  with  him  could 
fail  to  be  strengthened  and  helped.  His  greatest  charm 
was  his  simplicity.  Modest  in  his  estimate  of  his  own 
abilities,  he  was  upheld  and  sustained  at  all  times  by 
the  sincerity  and  integrity  of  his  own  aims  and  prin- 
ciples. 

With  the  lapse  of  time  his  fame  as  an  educator  will 
grow  greater,  and  his  name  will  stand  among  the  mas- 
ters of  learning  who  have  given  the  best  service  of 
their  lives  to  the  uplifting  of  humanity  through  educa- 


SUPERINTENDSNT    LEWIS     H.    JONES. 


EXTRACTS   FROM   ADDRESSES.  119 

tion.    There  are  two  classes  of  educators,  —  the  worker 
and  the  inspirer.     Dr.  Sheldon  was  both. 

It  was  a  touching  tribute  to  his  memory  published 
here  on  the  day  of  his  death :  — 

"  The  life  he  lived  is  nobler  than  anything  that  could  be  said 
of  him.  If  we  would  correctly  measure  the  man,  we  must  meas- 
ure the  things  he  loved.  He  loved  his  home,  he  loved  the 
children,  he  loved  his  country,  he  loved  nature,  and  he  loved  his 
God." 


THE   PLACE   OF   DR.    SHELDON    IN    THE   EDUCATIONAL 
WORLD.l 

Lewis  H.  Jones,  A.M.,  Superintendent  of  Schools,  Cleveland,  Ohio. 

In  the  long  and  prosperous  period  during  which  the 
Oswego  State  Normal  and  Training-School  has  de- 
veloped its  life,  founded  its  beliefs,  and  established  its 
practices,  many  minds  have  contributed  essential  parts 
of  the  whole  ;  but  there  has  been  but  one  head  to  the 
institution.  It  is  not  often  that  it  is  given  to  one  man 
to  originate  a  system  of  education,  to  embody  it  in  an 
institution,  and  to  live  to  see  that  institution  through 
its  beneficent  influences  permeate  the  entire  life  of  a 
nation.  It  has  been  the  fate  of  most  reformers  to  die 
before  the  cry  of  victory  has  rung  in  their  ears.     Dr. 


1  Included  here  by  courtesy  of  the  Educational  Review,  in  which  mag- 
azine the  complete  address  will  shortly  appear. 


120  THE   OSWEGO  NORMAL  SCHOOL. 

Sheldon  had  the  rare  felicity  to  enjoy  a  long  and  peace- 
ful career  of  unabated  prosperity  for  the  cause  of  his 
heart,  and  to  die  without  a  question  as  to  its  future. 
With  his  death  the  sceptre  passes  into  no  untried  hands. 
Enemies  there  have  been ;  but  they  have  been  van- 
quished by  being  converted  into  friends;  and  so  as 
time  goes  on,  the  cause  gathers  about  it  an  ever-increas- 
ing multitude. 

It  is  my  special  province  to-night  to  speak  of  the 
educational  work  of  Dr.  Sheldon,  rather  than  to  dwell 
on  the  lovable  traits  of  his  character  which  made  those 
of  us  who  knew  him  intimately  love  him  so  well,  and 
which  created  in  us  such  profound  respect  for  his  man- 
liness. It  is  perhaps  more  diJBficult  for  me  to  separate 
his  professional  self  from  his  personal  and  social  virtues 
than  for  one  who  had  known  him  only  in  his  profes- 
sional capacity.  Perhaps,  however,  this  is  more  imagi- 
nary than  real ;  for  more  than  any  other  teacher  I  'have 
ever  known  his  success  as  an  educator  was  the  direct 
result  of  his  greatness  of  soul,  and  capability  as  a  man 
and  citizen. 

It  was  this  greatness  of  character  which  led  him  to 
seek  for  the  permanent  and  universal  in  education  as 
opposed  to  the  temporary,  partial,  or  local. 


Dr.  Sheldon  cared  little  for  peculiar  crazes  in  educa- 
tion, but  sought  that  which  is  permanent.  His  good 
sense  saved  him  from  the  mistakes  of  erratic  enthusiasts. 


EXTRACTS   FROM   ADDRESSES.  121 

Froebel  founded  his  theory  to  a  certain  extent  on  a 
study  of  infancy ;  Pestalozzi,  upon  childhood ;  Herbart, 
on  youth ;  Rosenkranz,  on  the  study  of  the  mature  man. 
Dr.  Sheldon  included  in  the  psychology  on  which  he 
founded  this  school  the  study  of  man  throughout  his 
development,  from  infancy  to  manhood,  iind  throughout 
life ;  and  the  best  elements  of  all  these  systems  have 
been  embodied  in  the  philosophy  of  education  practised 
in  this  institution.  A  further  marked  element  of 
strength  in  Dr.  Sheldon's  work  is  found  in  the  fact  that 
in  the  midst  of  his  educational  work  he  lived  an  upright 
life,  in  harmony  with  the  best  phases  of  all  the  insti- 
tutions which  civilized  man  has  originated  for  the  up- 
lifting of  humanity.  He  believed  in  the  substantial 
progress  of  the  race,  and  never  doubted  the  high  destiny 
of  man.  Rousseau,  in  his  fierce  fight  for  the  rights  of 
the  individual,  violated  the  conscience  of  his  time,  and 
broke  faith  with  all  the  institutions  of  civilization,  in 
order  that  he  might  emphasize  the  tenets  of  individ- 
ualism and  a  return  to  nature.  Dr.  Sheldon  recognized 
what  Rousseau  never  saw,  —  that  a  return  to  nature  is, 
in  fact,  to  be  a  retufn  to  nature  under  law  and  order; 
and  that  the  institutions  of  civilized  life  are  the  most 
natural  things  which  any  one  can  conceive  when  the 
nature  of  man  is  thoroughly  understood.  It  was  the 
great  strength  of  Dr.  Sheldon  that  he  allied  himself 
with  all  the  forces  of  nature  and  spirit  that  make  for 
righteousness  and  civilization.  .  .  .  He  seemed  never 
troubled,  like  Matthew  Arnold,  to  find  a  name  for  this 


122  THE   OSWEGO  NORMAL   SCHOOL. 

higher  power.  He  never  beat  about  the  bush,  or  talked 
about  a  power,  not  ourselves,  that  makes  for  righteous- 
ness :  but  he  reverently  pronounced  the  name  of  God  ; 
and  had  he  lived  in  Bible  times,  I  have  no  doubt  he 
would  have  announced  his  educational  beliefs  with 
"Thus  saith  the  Lord,"  so  confident  was  he  of  the 
friendship  and  guidance  of  the  God  of  the  universe. 

The  time  was  fortunate.  Much  dissatisfaction  Avas 
being  felt  and  expressed  in  many  parts  of  the  country 
with  existing  conditions  of  education,  and  especially 
with  the  condition  of  the  primary  schools.  Up  to  that 
date  the  colleges  had  set  the  type  of  school,  public  and 
private.  The  view  had  been  taken  from  above.  No 
one  had  come  down  to  see  how  the  problem  might  seem 
when  looked  at  from  the  view-point  of  the  child.  So 
complete  was  the  reversal  that  Dr.  Sheldon  lived  to  see 
the  time  when,  in  spite  of  the  assertions  of  university 
leaders,  colleges  and  universities  have  been  obliged  to 
change  their  courses  and  improve  their  methods  because 
the  primary  schools  are  better  than  the  universities. 
Pupils  who  have  had  good  teaching  in  the  primary  and 
grammar  schools  have  compelled  the  teachers  in  high 
schools  and  colleges  to  wake  up  and  do  something  more 
than  lecture  after  a  cut-and-dried  form  on  the  dead 
theories  of  the  dead  past.  To  Dr.  Sheldon  more  than 
to  all  others  combined  is  due  this  result.  I  am  aware 
that  many  others  have  joined  in  the  later  movement, 
and  some  have  even  fancied  themselves  leaders  in  the 
movement.     It  is  always  easy  to  follow  after  some  one 


EXTRACTS   FROM   ADDRESSES.  123 

has  blazed  out  a  path.  There  were  bold  navigators  in 
the  time  of  Columbus  who  could  make  a  voyage  to  the 
new  world  in  less  time  than  it  first  took  Columbus  to 
cross  the  unknown  sea,  but  many  of  them  would  never 
have  passed  out  of  sight  of  land  had  no  one  preceded 
them. 

It  was  a  province  in  which  Dr.  Sheldon  had  some 
followers,  many  imitators,  but  no  rivals. 

It  is  hard  for  me  to  separate  these  matters  from 
personal  memories.  Yet  this  is  no  time  to  speak  his- 
torically. The  history  of  a  great  movement  can  be 
correctly  written  only  after  a  time-perspective  has  been 
attained.  It  lacks  a  few  days  of  being  thirty  years 
since  I  came  to  this  institution  as  a  pupil.  The  insti- 
tution had  even  at  that  time  an  international  reputation. 
I  well  remember  the  feeling  with  which  I  came.  My 
experience  in  teaching  prior  to  that  time  had  made  me 
thoroughly  dissatisfied  with  existing  conditions  and 
methods.  I  came  here,  not  exactly  to  scoff,  as  Gold- 
smith's villagers  went  to  church ;  I  came  rather  in 
doubt;  but  I  remained  to  pray.  Life  began  to  seem 
worth  the  living,  when  hope,  purpose,  and  plan  devel- 
oped themselves  one  after  another.  I  found  myself  in 
the  presence  of  a  born  organizer,  in  whose  mind  the 
educational  ideas  of  all  time  fused  and  blended,  elimi- 
nating the  inconsistent,  until  the  best  of  all  theories 
remained  an  organized  plan  for  the  education  of  chil- 
dren. I  have  never  believed  it  a  case  of  pure  thinking. 
Dr.  Sheldon  was  too  great  to  allow  himself  to  degene- 


124  THE   OSWEGO   KOllMAL  SCHOOL. 

rate  into  mere  intellect.  Neither  have  I  ever  thought 
him  an  originator  of  individual  ideas.  He  found  ideas 
as  the  bee  finds  nectar.  He  made  systems  of  education 
as  the  bee  transforms  nectar  into  honey.  I  think  it 
was  Mark  Hopkins  who  said  that  the  heliocentric  and 
geocentric  theories  of  the  solar  system  are  precisely 
alike  as  to  their  materials  of  thought.  The  greatness 
of  the  one  is  that  the  sun  and  not  the  earth  is  made  the 
centre.  It  is  the  mark  of  a  great  man  to  recognize 
intuitively  the  organizing  truth  in  the  heterogeneous 
mass  of  facts  in  any  province  of  thought.  Dr.  Sheldon 
had  this  instinct  in  a  higher  degree  than  any  other 
whom  I  have  ever  known.  He  did  not  neglect  facts ; 
indeed,  he  observed  patiently,  and  waited  for  the  last 
hint;  but  he  interpreted  facts  in  the  light  of  great 
principles. 

After  all,  his  great  strength  was  in  his  sanity,  —  his 
willingness  to  take  all  into  account,  and  then,  risking 
his  all,  to  stand.  He  was  in  harmony  with  the  great 
forces  of  the  universe,  and  had, little  need  to  fear  the 
outcome. 


An  extract  from  the  address  of  Professor  I.  B.  Poucher,  President 
of  the  Oswego  State  Normal  and  Training-Scliool. 

Another  commendable  element  ever  observable  in 
Dr.  Sheldon  was  sincerity.  He  was  transparent  as  a 
statue  of  glass.     He  was  in  every  respect  just  what  he 


EXTRACTS    FROM   ADDRESSES.  125 

appeared  to  be.  His  sentiments  were  never  disguised. 
On  all  questions  in  which  he  was  interested  he  held 
definite  views  and  expressed  them  with  fearlessness, 
and  yet  he  was  generous  to  a  fault  with  those  who  dif- 
fered from  him.  He  was  tenacious  of  his  own  opinions, 
which  were  formed  after  the  most  mature  deliberation, 
yet  he  was  most  respectful  and  tolerant  of  the  opinions 
of  others.  Do  not  judge  from  this,  however,  that  he 
was  not  a  formidable  antagonist.  There  are  at  least 
two  here  this  evening  who  have  been  often  by  his  side 
in  controversies,  one  of  which  occasions  will  never  be 
forgotten. 

It  was  at  a  meeting  of  the  principals  and  several 
members  of  the  faculties  of  the  normal  schools  of  this 
State  held  in  this  building  early  in  the  history  of  this 
school.  It  was  an  open  secret  that  at  this  meeting  the 
methods  of  instruction  pursued  in  the  Oswego  Normal 
School  were  to  be  attacked,  and  the  school  overwhelmed 
with  disgrace.  After  various  random  shots  from  lesser 
opponents,  the  leader  of  the  opposition  arose.  He  was 
a  profound  thinker,  clean  cut,  incisive  in  argument, 
possessing  a  metaphysical  mind  —  one  of  the  best  con- 
troversial speakers  in  the  State.  He  was,  however,  a 
Christian  gentleman,  open  to  argument,  and  willing  to 
be  convinced.  His  arguments  were  as  strong  as  the 
weakness  of  the  position  would  permit.  He  closed. 
Every  one  felt  that  the  critical  point  in  the  delibera- 
tions had  arrived.  The  eyes  of  every  Oswego  teacher 
were  riveted  upon  their  leader,  Dr.  Sheldon,  who  they 


126  THE   OSWEGO   NORMAL   SCHOOL. 

knew  was  equal  to  the  formidable  task  before  him.  He 
arose  from  his  seat  with  great  deliberation,  walked  to 
one  side  of  the  room  with  his  hands  clasped  behind  him, 
his  head  bowed  as  if  his  spirit  was  troubled.  He  spoke 
with  great  calnmess.  With  that  simplicity  and  plain- 
ness which  rendered  him  so  gracious  and  pleasing,  he 
unfolded  the  Pestalozzian  principles  upon  which  the 
Oswego  methods  were  based.  The  arguments  of  the 
opposition  were  swept  away  like  cobwebs.  When  each 
and  eveiy  one  was  answered,  the  fire  began  to  kindle  in 
his  eyes,  he  threw  back  his  head,  and  with  an  expres- 
sion of  conscious  power,  he  said :  "  Gentlemen,  I  will 
never  give  up  the  instruction  in  methods  in  the  Oswego 
Normal  School ;  I  will  cut  loose  from  every  other  nor- 
mal school  in  the  State  first,  and  pursue  our  course 
alone,  if  necessary,  rather  than  give  up  what  we  con- 
sider the  most  important  part  of  our  work."  The 
meeting  closed,  and  those  from  a  distance  went  to  their 
homes.  The  two  leaders  continued  their  arguments  by 
correspondence.  They  met  face  to  face  at  different 
times  to  renew  the  contest.  The  final  result  was  that 
the  Oswego  curriculum,  including  instruction  in  meth- 
ods, was  adopted  by  every  new  normal  school  in  the 
State,  nearly  every  one  of  which  employed  one  or  more 
Oswego  graduates. 

If  upon  mature  reflection,  after  consultation  with  his 
friends,  an  action  seemed  right,  then  he  favored  it,  no 
mfttter  what  the  result.     I  remember  once  at  a  faculty 


EXTRACTS   FBOM  ADDRESSES.  127 

meeting  the  matter  of  changing  the  curriculum  was  the 
subject  of  deliberation  and  discussion.  The  concensus 
of  opinion  seemed  to  favor  a  different  grouping  of  some 
subjects  and  omission  of  others.  The  argument  led  to 
but  one  conclusion,  which  seemed  to  startle  a  certain 
member  of  the  faculty,  who  remarked,  "So  you  want 
to  get  rid  of  me,  do  you?  "  Dr.  Sheldon's  answer  was, 
"No,  my  dear  friend,  we  do  not  want  to  get  rid  of  you. 
We  want  to  do  that  which  is  best*  for  the  normal 
school.  Its  interests  are  always  first  with  me,  even 
above  those  of  my  family.  If  it  would  be  an  advan- 
tage to  this  school  for  me  to  resign  my  position  I  would 
do  it  to-morrow."  This  closed  the  discussion.  The 
change  was  made,  and  the  resignation  followed.  The 
principle  that  guided  Dr.  Sheldon  in  this  and  all  trans- 
actions was  the  highest  good  to  all.  Selfishness  was 
not  a  part  of  his  nature. 

Lest  any  should  think  me  a  partial  witness,  let  me 
add  some  testimonies  from  the  first  educators  of  the 
nation,  received  in  personal  correspondence  in  the  past 
few  days  :  — 

Dr.  Mc Vicar  of  New  York  City  says :  — 
"I  feel  sure  that  it  is  difficult  to  overestimate  the 
nobility  of  Dr.  Sheldon's  character,  or  the  greatness  and 
importance  of  his  life-work." 

Superintendent  Maxwell  of  Brooklyn  :  — 
"  I  admire  Dr.  Sheldon  as  one  of  the  great  educa- 
tional leaders  of  this  country.     It  is  impossible  to  state 


128  THE  OSWEGO  NORMAL  SCHOOL. 

too  strongly  the  good  influence  he  exercised  in  inspiring 

others  with  his  own  zeal  and  lofty  ideas." 

Superintendent  Jones  of  Cleveland,  Ohio :  — 

"  I  owe  to  Dr.  Sheldon,  more  than  to  any  other  one 

person,  whatever  of  inspiration  I  have  carried  into  my 

teaching." 


"The  Hon.  Charles  R.  Skinner,  Superintendent  of 
Public  Instruction,  said  to  Dr.  Sheldon :  — 

"  Your  advice,  founded  on  long  years  of  experience, 
will  always  be  received  by  this  department  with  the 
utmost  pleasure  and  profit." 

Professor  Hermann  Kriisi :  — 

"Dr.  Sheldon  loved  truth,  and  possessed  a  pure, 
honest  heart.  His  relations  to  his  family  were  of  a  pa- 
triarchal character,  like  those  of  a  kind,  loving  father 
to  his  children.  I  never  knew  a  man  who  came  nearer 
to  my  idea  of  being  a  saint  than  he,  or  a  woman  with 
more  of  the  attributes  of  an  angel  than  his  wife,  who 
passed  away  before  him." 


ADDRESSES   AND   RESOLUTIONS 


INSERTED  IN  THIS 


Elumnt     flDemorial     jeMtion 


AT  THE  BEQUEST  OP 


A   MEMORIAL    COMMITTEE 


APPOINTED  BY 


THE  FACDLTY   OF  THE  OSWEGO  NORMAL  SCHOOL. 


MEMORIAL   RESOLUTIONS 

Of  the  Local  Board  of  the  Oswego  State  Normal  and  Training 
School,  Aug.  28,  1897. 

Yesterday  afternoon  at  four  o'clock  a  meeting  of 
the  local  board  of  the  State  -Normal  and  Training 
School  was  held  in  the  City  Hall  to  take  action  on  the 
death  of  Dr.  Edward  A.  Sheldon. 

When  President  MoUison  called  the  meeting  to  order 
there  were  only  two  absentees,  namely,  ex-Senator 
George  B.  Sloan  and  George  T.  Clark,  both  of  whom 
were  unavoidably  detained. 

Frederick  O.  Clarke  was  chosen  to  act  as  secretary, 
and  then  followed  the  formal  announcement  by  Presi- 
dent Mollison  of  Dr.  Sheldon's  death.  Mr.  Mollison 
made  appropriate  remarks  respecting  the  connection  of 
Dr.  Sheldon  with  educational  interests. 

Former  Judge  John  C.  Churchill,  after  emphasizing 
the  president's  remarks,  moved  the  appointment  of  a 
committee  of  three  to  draft  and  present  resolutions  ex- 
pressive of  the  feeling  of  the  board  on  the  occasion. 
Judge  Churchill,  Messrs.  Theodore  Irwin  and  A.  S. 
Page  were  named.  The  committee  reported  the  follow- 
ing memorial  and  resolutions : 

It  is  with  feelings  of  profound  sorrow  and  regret  that  this 
board  has  learned  of  the  sudden  and  unexpected  death  of  its  late 

131 


132  THE   OSWEGO  NORMAL   SCHOOL. 

acting  secretary,  the  principal  of  the  Oswego  State  Normal  and 
Training  School,  Dr.  Edward  A.  Sheldon. 

Scarcely  a  day  has  passed  sinc6  his  commanding  figure,  his 
alert  step,  his  "  good  gray  head  that  all  men  knew,"  were  seen 
upon  our  streets ;  he  attentive  to  all  the  interests  with  which  he 
has  been  so  long  identified,  when  without  pause  in  his  work,  and 
almost  without  premonition,  the  city  is  startled  by  the  announce- 
ment of  his  death. 

The  founder,  we  might  say  the  creator,  of  this  school,  whose 
local  board  we  are,  he  has  been  identified  with  it  from  the  begin- 
ning. When  in  1853  he  took  charge  of  the  public  schools  in 
Oswego  as  the  first  secretary  of  its  Board  of  Education  just  or- 
ganized, in  the  rules  for  the  government  of  those  schools,  prepared 
by  him  and  adopted  that  year,  it  was  required  that  the  teachers 
should  "  meet  every  Saturday  from  9  to  12  a.m.,  for  mutual  in- 
struction and  improvement,  and  by  recitations  and  general  exer- 
cises strive  to  systematize  and  perfect  the  modes  of  discipline  and 
teaching  in  the  public  schools."  At  those  weekly  sessions  he  was 
the  teacher,  and  with  untiring  patience  and  ever-increasing  intel- 
ligence and  skill  he  taught  the  teachers  how  to  teach. 

It  was  one  of  the  first  schools  for  the  instruction  of  teachers 
on  this  continent,  the  first  step  in  the  development  of  teaching 
as  a  profession. 

With  his  patient  perseverance  and  perception,  clear  at  the  first 
and  ever  growing  clearer,  of  the  necessities  of  the  case,  from  this 
beginning  grew  naturally  the  Oswego  Training  School,  the  Os- 
wego Normal  and  Training  School,  and  at  last  the  Oswego  State 
Normal  and  Training  School  ,whose  local  board  we  are,  and 
which,  under  his  guidance  and  inspiration  beyond  any  other 
single  influence,  has  elevated  and  improved  the  methods  and  sys- 
tems of  instruction  in  the  public  schools  of  this  country. 

But  it  will  be  for  others,  better  fitted  than  ourselves,  to  speak 
of  the  character  and  value  of  his  work,  to  do  justice  at  some  other 
time  and  place  to  the  work  accomplished  by  our  deceased  friend. 


MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES  AND   RESOLUTIONS.       133 

It  is  for  us  as  citizens  of  Oswego  to  express  the  debt  we  owe 
him  for  the  sixteen  years  of  faithful  and  fruitful  toil  he  gave  to 
the  management  of  our  public  schools,  and  for  the  system  of 
instruction  he  established  in  them. 

It  is  for  us  as  members  of  this  local  board  to  unite  with  the 
most  experienced  and  successful  of  the  great  educators  of  the 
country  in  declaring  the  value  of  the  services  rendered  by  him 
during  the  twenty-eight  years  he  has  served  as  principal  of  the 
Oswego  State  Normal  and  Training  School,  not  only  to  this 
school  and  the  students  instructed  here,  but  to  the  cause  of  prog- 
ress in  educational  methods  in  the  country  at  large  and  in  the 
regions  beyond. 

It  is  for  us  as  friends  to  declare  his  untiring  industry,  his  pa- 
tient perseverance,  his  unselfish  devotion,  his  upright  and  noble 
manhood,  his  Christian  character  and  life,  his  unwavering  trust 
in  the  good  providence  of  God,  the  noble  example  in  every  good 
word  and  work  which  he  has  left  us. 

Resolved,  That  this  memorial  of  the  late  principal  of  the  State 
Normal  and  Training  School  be  entered  upon  the  records  of  the 
board,  and  that  an  engrossed  copy  of  the  same  be  furnished  the 
family  of  the  deceased,  in  whose  great  loss  we  share,  and  with 
whose  sorrow  we  sympathize. 

Mr.  Edwin  Allen  moved  the  adoption  of  the  report 
and  resolution. 

Mr.  Coon,  in  seconding  the  motion,  made  reference 
to  the  integrity,  uprightness,  and  nobility  of  character 
so  marked  in  the  life  of  Dr.  Sheldon.  Mr.  Coon's  re- 
marks were  listened  to  with  the  closest  attention,  and 
what  he  said  of  the  venerable  educator  voiced  the  senti- 
ments of  all  present.  In  further  seconding  the  motion, 
Mr.  Irwin  spoke  as  follows :  — 


134  THE  OSWEGO   NORMAL  SCHOOL. 

I  greatly  regret  my  inability  to  express  in  fitting  -words  the 
feelings  of  my  heart  on  the  sad  event  which  has  called  us  to- 
gether. No  one,  I  am  sure,  feels  more  deeply  the  sense  of  per- 
sonal loss  sustained  in  the  death  of  Dr.  Sheldon,  for  he  was  a 
valued  friend  whom  I  had  known  for  half  a  century.  I  first 
knew  him  as  a  young  man  when  he  came  here  to  reside  in  1847. 
Two  years  later  he  came  -with  his  bride  to  board  in  the  same 
house  with  me.  But  it  is  in  our  relations  in  the  management  of 
the  normal  school  during  a  period  of  thirty  years  that  I  have 
known  him  most  intimately,  and  have  learned  to  appreciate  his 
many  valued  qualities  of  mind  and  heart. 

In  his  loved  profession  of  education  he  attained  wide  and  mer- 
ited renown.  His  judgment  and  his  views  in  all  that  related  to 
educational  methods  were  remarkable.  He  was  loved  by  all,  both 
teachers  and  pupils,  who  came  under  his  influence ;  and  in  all  sec- 
tions of  this  broad  country  are  those,  numbering  many  thousands, 
who  will  learn  with  profound  sorrow  of  his  death. 

Beyond  his  great  ability  as  a  teacher.  Dr.  Sheldon  was  an  able 
man  of  affairs  and  of  business.  As  treasurer  of  this  board,  and 
member  of  the  committees  on  building  and  teachers,  I  have  been 
impressed  with  the  vast  amount  of  labor  he  performed  cheer- 
fully, and  in  the  most  correct  and  methodical  manner.  No  cost 
of  time  and  trouble  was  too  great  for  him  in  his  desire  to  relieve 
the  members  of  this  board  from  the  vast  details  of  the  manage- 
ment of  the  institution. 

I  shall  miss  his  familiar  form  in  our  streets  and  at  our  meet- 
ings, the  inspiration  of  his  example,  the  pleasant  smile  and  cheer- 
ful greeting,  and  shall  always  cherish  the  remembrance  of  this 
noble  Christian  gentleman. 

At  the  conclusion  of  Mr.  Irwin's  remarks  the  report 
was  adopted. 

President  Mollison  extended,  on  behalf  of  the  family, 


MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES   AND   RESOLUTIONS.      135 

an  invitation  to  the  members  of  the  board  to  act  as 
honorary  pall-bearers  at  the  funeral.  On  motion  of  Mr. 
Page  the  invitation  was  accepted. 

The  Mayor,  Common  Council,  city  officers.  Board  of 
Education,  city  teachers,  and  alumni  of  the  Normal 
School  have  been  invited  to  attend  the  funeral  of  the 
late  Dr.  E.  A.  Sheldon  from  Grace  Church,  at  2.30  P.M., 
Sunday  next. 

ADDRESS    OF    HON.    GEORGE    B.    SLOAN. 

At  the  Memorial  Services  of  the  Oswego  City  Teachers'  Association, 
October,  1897. 

The  Hon.  George  B.  Sloan  was  introduced  as  the 
next  speaker,  and  made  an  address  touching  mainly 
the  personal  characteristics  of  Dr.  Sheldon.  Express- 
ing his  appreciation  of  the  privilege  accorded  him  by 
the  teachers  in  addressing  them,  he  referred  to  several 
reasons  for  his  pleasure  in  responding,  among  them  one 
most  prominent,  —  the  fact  that  he  had  always  counted 
himself  among  those  who  placed  the  highest  conceiv- 
able value  on  education,  believing  it  to  be  productive 
of  the  greatest  attainable  moral,  social,  and  economic 
advantages.  Holding  thus  the  opinion  that  education 
was  absolutely  necessary  to  success  in  life,  he  could  not 
fail  to  have  the  highest  regard  for  those  who  followed 
the  profession  of  teaching,  and  hence  his  gratification 
in  being  called  on  by  the  teachers  to  speak  of  one  for 
whom  he  entertained  so  much  esteem  and  regard. 


136  THE  OSWEGO  NORMAL  SCHOOL. 

Passing  then  to  speak  of  Dr.  Sheldon,  Mr.  Sloan 
pronounced  glowing  words  of  eulogy,  which  he  said 
were  only  words  of  justice.  If,  said  he,  there  are  some 
extremely  critical  people  who  think  I  have  taken  the 
measurement  of  Dr.  Sheldon  in  too  large  a  mould,  who 
think  that  in  my  admiration  I  am  not  strictly  accu- 
rate, their  views  can  be  easily  accounted  for.  They 
simply  did  not  know  Dr.  Sheldon,  so  noiselessly,  so 
unostentatiously,  with  so  much  self-abnegation  and  so 
little  desire  for  public  commendation,  was  the  work  of 
his  life  carried  on.  He  had  rarely  known  a  man,  said 
Mr.  Sloan,  so  oblivious  of  his  own  achievements,  so  actu- 
ated by  a  desire  to  do  the  daily  duty  that  came  to  him 
without  thought  of  personal  benefit.  The  majority  of 
the  people  composing  this  community  have  not  had  the 
opportunity  of  learning  in  its  plentitude  what  manner 
of  man  Dr.  Sheldon  was.  It  is  a  fact  that  in  educa- 
tional circles  his  opinion  ranked  as  high  as  that  of  any 
member  of  the  profession,  so  well  did  our  leaders  appre- 
ciate the  value  of  his  counsel,  his  high  character,  and 
his  devotion  to  his  duties. 

His  warm  admiration  for  Dr.  Sheldon,  said  the 
speaker,  had  led  him  to  attempt  to  analyze  his  charac- 
ter, to  determine  what  were  the  elements  which  made 
him  such  a  successful  man.  He  thought  the  greatest 
and  fundamental  characteristic  was  an  equable  and  se- 
rene temperament,  which  enabled  him  to  restrain  irrita- 
tion and  impatience  under  the  most  trying  circumstances. 
He  was  to  a  marked  degree  swayed  by  the  influence  of 


MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES  AND  RESOLUTIONS.       137 

a  desire  and  capability  to  weigh  the  pros  and  cons  of 
every  case  before  reaching  conclusions.  In  this  respect 
Mr.  Sloan  declared  only  one  other  man  of  his  acquain- 
tance ever  approximated  to  these  conditions  of  perfec- 
tion in  Dr.  Sheldon. 

Another  trait  of  character  was  spoken  of,  —  that  of 
industry.  Amid  all  the  discussion  of  the  proper  length 
of  time  for  daily  labor  so  much  talked  about  in  the 
« press  and  elsewhere  of  late  years,  Dr.  Sheldon,  while 
sympathizing  with  every  movement  to  ameliorate  the 
condition  of  laboring  men,  calmly  went  his  own  way, 
limiting  himself  not  to  eight,  nor  ten,  nor  twelve  hours 
for  his  daily  allotment  of  toil.  Perhaps  fourteen  hours 
would  more  fully  measure  the  extent  of  his  devotion  to 
his  duties.  He  loved  his  work  because  he  loved  his 
fellow-men.  He  loved  to  see  young  people  prosper.  He 
loved  to  see  them  grow,  along  those  lines  which  prom- 
ise development  of  character,  —  the  lines  which  make 
for  happiness  and  usefulness  in  this  life,  and  give  assu- 
rance of  a  blessed  hereafter;  and  this  accounts  for  his 
intense  absorption  in  his  work. 

Mr.  Sloan  then  spoke  of  the  gentleness  of  his  disposi- 
tion, his  engaging  manners,  his  tactfulness  in  bringing 
others  to  his  way  of  thinking,  first  reaching  his  own 
conclusions  by  means  of  thorough,  honest  investigation 
and  logical  reasoning.  In  his  own  work  on  the  local 
board,  Mr.  Sloan  said,  as  chairman  of  the  committee  of 
teachers,  he  had  invariably  submitted  to  the  judgment 
of  Dr.  Sheldon,  as  had  in  fact  the  other  members  of 


138  THE  OSWEGO  NOBMAL  SCHOOL. 

the  board.  One  more  element  of  the  character  of 
the  deceased  was  referred  to,  —  that  of  his  absolute 
conscientiousness.  Every  question  was  submitted  to 
the  test,  Is  it  right?  Is  it  wrong?  measured  by  rules 
of  morality,  and  the  divine  will;  and  when  satisfied 
on  these  points,  nothing  could  swerve  him  from  his 
position.  Nothing  could  be  farther  from  the  truth,  the 
speaker  said,  than  for  a  moment  to  suppose  that  Dr. 
Sheldon  fell  short  of  being  a  firm  man  because  of  the 
fact  that  his  methods  of  reasoning  were  not  those  of  the 
dogmatist.  It  is  true  that  he  was  never  outwardly 
aggressive.  He  never  impressed  one  £is  possessed  of  the 
least  degree  of  vanity,  and  one  might  at  first  assume 
that  possibly  there  was  not  enough  self-assertion  in  his 
personality ;  but  little  observation  was  needed  to  perceive, 
however,  that  sincerity  and  ample  determination,  as  well 
as  benevolence,  were  written  in  every  line  of  his  coun- 
tenance ;  and  those  who  knew  him  best  came  to  under- 
stand that  when  a  principle  was  at  stake  Dr.  Sheldon's 
convictions  of  the  right  of  the  side  of  the  question  he 
espoused  were  sure  to  be  made  fearlessly  plain,  and  fail- 
ure to  convince  those  he  addressed  rarely  followed  his 
efforts.  So  logical  and  winning  indeed  were  his  methods 
of  stating  a  proposition,  and  then  supporting  them  with 
well-considered  reasons,  so  apparent,  too,  were  the  can- 
dor and  fairness  of  his  contention,  that  his  case  was  not 
unlikely  to  be  won  with  its  simple  but  characteristic 
presentation. 

It  has  always  seemed  to  me,  the  speaker  continued. 


MEMOEIAL  ADDBESSES  AND  BBSOLTTTIONS.       139 

that  Dr.  Sheldon's  tactfulness,  or,  as  might  perhaps 
more  properly  be  said,  his  pacificatory  powers,  the  qual- 
ities so  helpful,  if  not  indeed  determining,  in  so  many 
of  the  remarkable  successes  of  Franklin's  career,  though 
of  necessity  displayed  in  a  narrower  field  of  action  in 
Dr.  Sheldon's  case,  were  nevertheless  akin  to  those  for 
which  the  great  philosopher  and  statesman  was  distin- 
guished. 

In  concluding  his  address,  Mr.  Sloan  referred  to  the 
generosity  and  broad  sympathy  of  the  man  whose  loss 
we  mourn,  expressed  in  so  many  ways  unknown  to  the 
public,  expressed  often  in  aiding  struggling  students 
to  realize  their  ambition  for  an  education.  He  voiced 
his  own  personal  love  for  him  as  a  friend,  and  declared 
that  there  had  not  within  his  recollection  lived  and  died 
in  Oswego  a  man  whose  planting  and  tillage  would 
show  more  abundant  fruitage  than  that  of  Dr.  Sheldon; 
that  while  in  Shakespeare's  time  conditions  and  environ- 
ment might  have  warranted  the  immoi*tal  bard  in  writ- 
ing, "  The  evil  that  men  do  lives  after  them,  the  good  is 
oft  interred  with  their  bones,"  it  is  not  true  in  our  day. 
It  is  not,  it  cannot  be  true  in  Dr.  Sheldon's  case.  The 
touch  of  Dr.  Sheldon's  life  will  be  felt  not  only  by 
those  whose  work  was  with  him  and  near  him,  but  it 
will  be  felt  by  others  still,  and  yet  again  it  will  be  felt 
by  future  generations,  unrecognized,  unseen  perhaps,  but 
yet  working  out  helps  to  higher  ideals,  after  all  earthly 
recollections  of  his  lovable  personality  shall  have  faded 
out  of  sight  forever. 


140  THE  OSWEGO   NORMAL  SCHOOL. 

A  life  like  that  of  the  great  educator,  Dr.  Sheldon, 
now  gone  from  among  us,  is  imperishable  in  its  influ- 
ence for  good,  and  the  lessons  of  its  example  will  never 
die.  The  light  of  these  lessons  will  shine  on,  and  more 
brightly.  It  will  point  the  way  to  wholesome  thought 
and  wholesome  action.  Its  rays  will  quicken  the  souls 
of  thousands  drawn  every  year  to  our  institutions  of 
learning.  Encouragement  will  be  felt  by  those  who 
are  striving  to  be  teachers.  They  will  be  made  better 
teachers.  More  than  that,  they  will  grow  into  better 
men,  better  women.  They  will  grow  into  better  men 
and  better  women  because  they  will  wear  the  crown  of 
righteous  endeavor,  —  the  endeavor  of  useful  aims  and 
cheerful  sacrifices.  These,  in  the  nature  of  things,  are 
the  sequences  of  lives  like  Dr.  Sheldon's.  May  it  not 
be  concluded,  then,  that  no  legacy  is  more  grateful,  no 
wealth  more  valuable,  no  incentive  more  helpful,  than 
the  examples  of  such  lives.  To  be  factors  while  living 
in  shaping  for  good  the  destinies  of  those  who  live  later, 
is  indeed  a  laudable  and  noble  ambition.  Even  more 
than  that;  it  should  fill  the  largest  measure  of  human 
desire,  especially  when  such  lives  as  the  one  that  is 
ended  are  emulated,  because  the  record  of  that  life  re- 
veals no  obligation  unfulfilled,  no  act  to  cause  regret. 


MEMOKIAL   ADDRESSES    AND   RESOLUTIONS.       141 


Address  at  the  Memorial  Exercises  of  the  Normal  School,  hy 
Rev.  David  Wills,  Jr. 

DR.  SHELDON  AND   THE   CHURCH. 

The  church  of  God !  It  is  single.  It  stands  alone. 
There  is  no  other.  Its  members,  filled  with  the  Spirit, 
are  of  every  name,  every  land,  and  every  age.  Into  this 
church,  because  he  was  a  child  of  God,  Dr.  Sheldon 
came,  as  the  flowers  come  to  the  sun,  as  the  student 
runs  after  knowledge,  as  artists  sketch  and  poets  sing. 
A  renewed  man,  a  good  Aian,  and  full  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
he  moved  into  and  in  the  church  universal  with  much 
of  the  naturalness  of  home  life.  It  was  spirit  seeking 
the  spiritual.  His  moral  philosophy  was  Copernican ; 
and  the  central  force  was  Jerusalem,  the  house  of  God's 
abode.  In  social  and  political  life  he  was  a  pilgrim 
father ;  dominant  over  all  other  interests  was  Zion,  the 
city  of  the  Most  High. 

But  man's  vision  is  limited.  We  see,  at  best,  but  a 
part  of  any  truth;  we  discover  only  the  little  circles 
within  the  larger  orb.  So  we  speak  of  churches.  We 
make  divisions,  —  the  church  invisible  and  the  churches 
visible,  the  church  formed  of  real  faith  and  the  churches 
founded  on  professed  faith.  Dr.  Sheldon  vs^as  also  a 
member  of  the  lesser  church.  He  was  wise  enough  to 
see  that  even  an  imperfect  organization  was  better  than 
no  organization ;  and  he  was  too  broad  not  to  recognize 
the  present  day  naturalness,  if  not  necessity,  for  theo- 
logical and  rubrical  differences  among  Christians. 


142  THE  OSWEGO   NORMAL   SCHOOL. 

As  a  member  of  such  a  church  he  was  loyal;  heart 
and  hand  he  was  with  it.  To  him  its  sacraments  meant 
the  oath  to  support  it  and,  if  need  be,  to  suffer  for  it. 
A  man  of  business,  no  business  was  more  serious  than 
that  of  the  sanctuary.  Nor  was  his  loyalty  ever  more 
apparent  than  in  the  charity  of  his  fellowship.  That 
student,  of  whatever  ecclesiastical  name,  whose  life  was 
hid  with  God  in  Jesus  Christ,  was  the  ideal  churchman 
to  Dr.  Sheldon. 

Then  he  was  a  consistent  member.  Consistency  is  a 
pale  word  to  express  the  blood-red  meaning  I  have  in 
mind.  He  was  so  good,  so  true,  so  pure,  his  words 
influenced  us,  his  wisdom  guided  us;  but,  most  of  all, 
his  character  was  his  power  over  us.  Such  a  man ! 
We  believed  in  him ;  we  trusted  in  him.  Such  a  heart  I 
Near  it,  we  felt  that  God  himself  was  nigh. 

And  he  was  a  loving  member.  Ah,  here  is  the  crown 
jewel  of  this  illuminated,  this  brilliant  life.  The  flash 
was  from  the  heart.  The  history  of  Dr.  Sheldon,  broad 
and  varied  though  it  may  be,  will  all  be  written  within 
the  limits  of  the  first  and  the  great  commandment: 
"  Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart, 
and  thy  neighbor  as  thj^self."  His  religion  was  neither 
a  proposition  nor  a  profession,  it  was  a  passion.  He  did 
not  think  nor  argue  about  God ;  he  rather  gazed  into 
the  face  of  God  as  a  true  son  looks  into  the  counte- 
nance of  a  loving  father.  By  communion  he  was 
changed  into  the  heavenly  image.  And  truly  he  loved 
others.    His  heart  was  with  all.    He  was  drawn,  by  moral 


MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES  AND  RESOLUTIONS.       143 

gravitation,  to  the  goodness  of  all  the  good,  and  his  soul 
went  out  in  gentleness  and  pity  towards  the  badness  of 
all  the  bad.  He  was  a  loving  member,  and  this  is  all ; 
for  God  is  love,  and  love  is  the  fulfilling  of  the  law. 

Only  let  us  remember  this.  Dr.  Sheldon  was  and  is 
a  member  of  the  church.  That  church  is  founded  on 
love,  and  "neither  life  nor  death"  shall  separate  its 
members  from  that  love.  Let  us  believe  in  the  com- 
munion of  the  saints ;  let  us  fellowship  ever  with  Dr. 
Sheldon.     He  lives  !      He  lives ! 

"One  family  we  dwell  in  Him, 

One  church  above,  beneath, 
Though  now  divided  by  the  stream, 

The  narrow  stream  of  death. 
One  army  of  the  living  God, 

At  his  command  we  bow; 
Part  of  the  host  have  crossed  the  flood. 

And  part  are  crossing  now." 


Memorial  Resolutions  of  the  Normal  Principals  of  the  State  at  the 
Semi-annual  Meeting,  October,  1897. 

Whereas,  Since  the  last  semi-annual  meeting  of  the  Normal 
Principals'  Council,  Dr.  Edward  A.  Sheldon,  its  president,  much 
honored  and  much  beloved,  has  passed  from  a  life  of  rich  labor 
into  eternal  rest,  and, 

Whereas,  The  members  of  this  Council  desire  to  express  and 
record  our  sense  of  deep  sorrow,  and  give  utterance  to  our  appre- 
ciation of  the  work  and  worth  of  our  leader,  be  it 


144  THE   OSWEGO   NORMAL  SCHOOL. 

Resolved,  That  the  members  of  the  Normal  School  Principals' 
Council,  assembled  in  session  at  Lake  Mohonk,  hereby  express 
their  profound  feeling  of  personal  loss  in  the  death  of  Dr.  Edward 
A.  Sheldon,  our  enthusiastic  and  ever-hopeful  leader,  our  wise 
counsellor,  our  kindly  and  warm-hearted  friend. 

Resolved,  That  we  hereby  convey  our  tenderest  sympathy  to 
his  much-bereaved  family,  to  the  faculty  and  students  of  the  Os- 
wego Normal  School,  and  to  the  many  graduates  of  Oswego,  widely 
scattered  throughout  the  country,  who  bear  in  their  lives  the  im- 
press of  the  manly  man,  the  whole-souled  teacher,  the  wise  guide, 
the  true  friend,  and  the  high-minded  patriot. 

Resolved,  That  in  view  of  the  high  character  of  Dr.  Sheldon, 
the  conspicuous  place  he  occupied  as  one  of  the  fathers  of  the 
normal-school  system  in  America,  and  one  of  the  pioneers  of  our 
public-school  system,  the  president  of  this  council  appoint  a  com- 
mittee to  prepare  a  suitable  memorial  of  Dr.  Sheldon,  and  to 
submit  the  same  at  the  next  meeting  of  this  council. 

Resolved,  That  a  copy  of  these  resolutions  be  forwarded  by 
the  secretary  of  the  council  to  the  family  of  our  departed  friend, 
to  the  local  board  the  faculty,  and  the  students  of  the  Oswego 
Normal  School. 


Memorial  presented  Dec.  13  by  the  Committee  Appointed  by  City 
and  Village  Superintendents. 

To  the  Council  of  City  and  Village  Superintendents. 

Gentlemen,  —  Your  committee  appointed  to  draft  a 
memorial  to  the  late  Dr.  E.  A.  Sheldon  beg  leave  to 
submit  the  following :  — 

The  lives  of  the  great  and  good  are  our  richest  in- 
heritance.    Such  a  heritage  is  ours  in  the  late  Edward 


MEMOEIAL   ADDRESSES   AND   RESOLUTIONS.       145 

Austin  Sheldon,  A.M.,  Ph.D.,  Principal  of  the  State 
Normal  and  Training  School  at  Oswego. 

To-day  we  stand  too  near  to  get  the  proper  perspec- 
tive for  a  fair  estimate  of  the  work  of  this  man.  The 
times  do  not  permit  of  reforms  like  those  instituted  by 
Comenius;  the  laws  of  mental  growth  have  been  care- 
fully studied  and  formulated ;  educational  theories  have 
been  promulgated  and  tested;  but  in  a  day  when  the 
trend  of  American  education  was  towards  formalism,  it 
was  Dr.  Sheldon  who  arrested  pedagogical  thought,  and 
insisted  upon  bringing  childhood  into  touch  with  na- 
tui'e,  thereby  predicating  scholarship  upon  experience. 

For  nearly  half  a  century  he  devoted  his  talents  and 
energies  to  the  development  and  improvement  of  our 
public-school  system,  during  which  period  a  host  of 
disciples  went  forth  from  under  his  teachings  whose 
missionary  work  has  moulded  and  improved  the  meth- 
ods of  teaching  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of 
our  land.  A  pioneer  in  the  introduction  of  untried 
methods  at  a  time  when  those  in  vogue  were  crude  and 
unphilosophical,  he  devoted  himself  resolutely  and  as- 
siduously to  the  work  of  reform.  He  declined  honors 
and  emoluments  which  broader  fields  of  work  offered, 
and  steadfastly  toiled  where  he  believed  his  Master  had 
called  him.  Happily  he  lived  to  see  in  the  fruition  of 
his  work  a  golden  harvest  of  merited  honor.  His  name 
stands  enrolled  among  the  most  illustrious  promoters  of 
popular  education  of  modern  times. 

Without  claiming  for  Dr.  Sheldon  the  credit  of  dis- 


146  THE  OSWEGO   NORMAL   SCHOOL. 

covery  or  the  invention  of  a  new  system  of  pedagogics, 
his  work  was  so  distinctive,  his  theory  of  training 
teachers  so  radically  different  from  his  contemporaries, 
that  we  do  well  to  pause  and  to  consider  our  indebted- 
ness to  his  life,  and  to  honor  the  memory  of  a  man  who 
has  given  form  to  the  educational  thought  and  the  edu- 
cational practice  of  a  continent.  When  the  future 
historian  of  pedagogics  shall  re-write  the  changes  in 
American  education,  the  progress  in  primary  education 
and  in  the  training  of  teachers,  Edward  Austin  Sheldon 
shall  stand  alone,  the  Pestalozzi  of  the  New  World. 

Simple,  unpretending,  seeking  to  be  taught  that  he 
in  turn  might  teach,  his  sole  aim  was  to  discover  and 
to  establish  a  system  of  pedagogics,  simple,  logical, 
based  upon  the  unfolding  activities  of  childhood,  which 
should  fit  man  for  humanity  and  for  his  eternal  destiny. 
Dr.  Sheldon's  character  was  unique.  He  labored  for  a 
principle,  and  subjected  all  minor  considerations  to  its 
advancement.  He  was  not  an  enthusiast,  but  a  patient, 
persistent,  and  hopeful  worker.  He  was  ever  courteous, 
gentle,  and  unassuming  under  conditions  which  would 
have  rendered  a  less  noble  character  autocratic  and  pre- 
tentious. He  was  guileless  and  pure,  a  disciple  of  the 
Great  Teacher  in  precept  and  in  example ;  in  fine,  a 
Christian  gentleman. 

His  home,  "Shady  Shore,"  with  its  trees  and  vines, 
its  bees  and  flowers,  was  an  outward  index  of  his  sym- 
pathy with  nature.  Longfellow's  tribute  to  Agassiz  may 
well  be  applied  to  him :  — 


MEMOKIAL   ADDRESSES   AND    RESOLUTIONS.       147 

"Nature,  the  old  nurse,  took 
The  child  upon  her  knee. 
Saying,  '  Here  is  a  story-book 

Thy  Father  has  written  for  thee.' 

"And  he  wandered  away  and  away 
With  Nature,  the  dear  old  nurse, 
Who  sang  to  him  night  and  day 
The  rhjrmes  of  the  universe." 

The  grove,  the  garden,  the  vineyard,  the  lake,  were 
his  teachers.  In  these  more  than  in  books  he  found 
the  inspiration  of  his  life.  He  read  them,  not  as  bota- 
nist, not  as  naturalist,  but  as  a  child  to  whom  these 
were  an  open  revelation  of  a  divine  intelligence ;  to 
him  they  were  a  boundless  store  of  knowledge,  in  which 
he  found  much  to  contemplate,  and  the  very  contempla- 
tion was  inspiration,  joy,  peace. 

In  reviewing  the  life  of  Dr.  Sheldon  for  the  purpose 
of  finding  the  secret  of  his  power,  at  least  the  following 
characteristics  may  be  discovered :  a  genial,  hopeful 
spirit;  love  for  children  ;  enthusiasm  born  of  conviction 
of  the  righteousness  of  his  cause ;  the  elevation  of  hu- 
manity; catholicity  of  spirit;  supreme  faith  in  divine 
guidance  and  aid;  faith  that  somehow  through  all  his 
work  the  "purposes  of  God  would  surely  work  their 
own  best  way." 

His  own  words  in  explanation  of  his  declining  flat- 
tering invitations  to  posts  of  honor  best  reflect  his  real 
life.  "  I  have  endeavored  to  put  myself  in  position  to 
pursue  the  line  of  duty,  without  reference  to  personal 


148  THE   OSWEGO   NORMAL   SCHOOL. 

inclination,  seeking  simply  to  know  ray  Father's  will, 
and  then  to  do  it." 

In  his  address  of  welcome  to  the  alumni,  on  the  oc- 
casion of  the  celebi^tion  of  the  first  quarter  century  of 
the  Oswego  Normal  School,  Dr.  Sheldon  said,  "  One 
of  the  surest  elements  of  prosperity  in  any  undertaking 
is  loyalty  to  truth.  To  this  more  than  any  other  thing 
has  our  success  been  due.  Thoroughly  imbued  with 
the  belief  that  there  are  certain  unchanging  laws  of 
mental  growth  which  must  form  the  basis  of  all  true 
educational  progress,  we  have  made  them  the  foundation- 
stone  of  our  structure."  In  speaking  of  the  agencies 
which  have  contributed  to  the  growth  of  the  school  he 
continues,  "  All  these  I  have  emphasized  as  human  in- 
strumentalities ;  but  rising  far  above  them  all,  and  in 
and  through  them  all,  there  has  been  infinite  wisdom  to 
guide,  direct,  and  control  all  efforts  and  all  events,  and 
give  them  success.  The  providence  of  God  has  been 
very  marked  in  the  whole  history  of  this  school.  We 
can  but  regard  it  as  an  institution  of  his  own  planting 
and  protecting,  and  to  him  be  all  the  praise  of  what  we 
are  and  what  we  hope  to  be." 

Dr.  Sheldon  will  ever  hold  a  conspicuous  place  among 
American  educators  on  account  of  two  lines  of  work, 
either  of  which  would  merit  lasting  fame. 

Himself  an  ardent  lover  of  nature,  he  sought  to  put 
every  child  in  touch  with  nature,  that  the  young  life 
might  early  feel  the  presence  of  the  Creator,  and  early 
learn  to  love  him.     To  this  end  he  gave  prominence  to 


MEMORIAL  ADDBESSES  AND   RESOLUTIONS.       149 

the  acquisition  of  knowledge  through  the  senses  in  pri- 
mary education,  and  in  laboratory  methods  in  advanced 
study.  That  primary  knowledge  is  sensuous  was  not 
an  original  conception  with  Dr.  Sheldon,  but  he  brought 
the  attention  of  educators  to  this  fact,  by  the  emphasis 
which  he  placed  upon  observation  lessons,  or  "object 
lessons  "  as  they  were  first  termed.  These  views  were 
stoutly  controverted  in  educational  gatherings,  and  a 
man  of  less  profound  conviction  would  have  abandoned 
the  field ;  but  certain  of  his  position  he  met  argument 
with  fact,  until  his  critics  and  opponents,  convinced  of 
the  correctness  of  his  position,  became  his  warmest 
friends.  His  oft-repeated,  "You  may  not  see  it  now, 
but  you  will  come  to  acknowledge  my  position,"  was 
his  only  personal  rebuke  offered  those  who  differed 
with  him  in  these  debates.  The  present  generation  of 
teachers  can  hardly  realize  that  what  they  accept  as 
cardinal  principles  in  education  were  advocated  for  years 
by  Dr.  Sheldon  alone.  His  faith  in  the  ultimate  suprem- 
acy of  truth  made  him  a  bold  defender  of  a  principle 
whose  verity  he  had  tested. 

The  second  phase  of  school-work  in  America  for  which 
Dr.  Sheldon  is  responsible,  and  for  which  he  alone  is 
entitled  to  credit,  is  the  so-called  "  Oswego  theory  of 
training  teachers."  A  firm  believer  in  the  necessity 
of  a  clear  comprehension  of  principles,  Dr.  Sheldon  did 
not  believe  that  such  comprehension  could  be  divorced 
from  practice.  Precept  and  rule  derived  their  content 
^rom  application ;  hence  the  basal  principle  in  the  train- 


150  THE  OSWEGO   NORMAL  SCHOOL. 

ing  of  teachers  was  the  necessity  of  a  school  of  practice 
where  principles  could  be  tested,  and  where  habits  of 
correct  teaching  could  be  formed.  The  place  of  the 
schools  of  practice  in  the  normal  school  as  taught  by 
Dr.  Sheldon  was  at  first  strenuously  opposed  in  the  State 
associations  and  in  national  councils,  but  the  results  ob- 
tained in  the  Oswego  school  soon  vindicated  the  author; 
and  to-day  the  numerous  normal  schools  based  upon  the 
original  Oswego  idea  are  the  strongest  evidence  of  the 
far-seeing  mind  of  this  prince  of  educators.  To  Dr. 
Sheldon  must  be  given  the  credit  and  the  honor  of  dem- 
onstrating the  necessity  of  the  practice  department  in 
the  normal  school. 

The  members  of  this  council  who  were  present  at  the 
Buffalo  meeting  of  the  national  association  in  1896  will 
recall  the  heated  debate  upon  the  "  Organization  of  the 
Training-School,"  and  also  the  clearness  with  which 
Dr.  Sheldon  outlined  his  ideal  normal  school. 

The  serious  if  not  the  fatal  defect  in  our  educational  system 
before  the  advent  of  the  "  Oswego  ^lovement "  was  the  strange 
neglect  of  childhood,  a  system  predicated  upon  the  uniA'ersity  and 
not  upon  the  kindergarten.  How  to  reverse  this  system  was  the 
problem  which  engaged  the  attention  of  this  second  Pestalozzi. 
But  who  was  to  instruct  him,  and  where  was  material  to  be 
found?  Some  means  must  be  devised  to  put  the  child  into  proper , 
relation  with  life.  His  education  must  be  helpful,  uplifting,  and 
inspiring.  Dr.  Sheldon  believed  that  "education  should  imbue 
man  with  respect  for  the  circumstances  and  the  events  of  his 
environment,  and  at  the  same  time  inspire  him  with  faith  in  the 
inexhaustible  resources  of  his  nature ;  for  only  by  producing  better 
things  can  he  elevate  himself  above  his  past." 


MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES   AND   RESOLUTIONS.       151 

Dr.  Sheldon  never  hoped  to  see  self-wrought  reforms ;  he  be- 
lieved in  tireless  activity.  '^  When  1  have  done  my  best  to  per- 
suade men  to  my  ideas  I  keep  right  on,  and  trust  to  the  vindication 
of  results."  His  life  was  an  incarnation  of  the  masterful  senti- 
ment of  Lord  Bacon,  "  In  this  world  God  only  and  angels  may  be 
spectators."  His  theories  were  not  the  result  of  accident,  but 
were  the  logical  outgrowth  of  mature  reflection.  He  had  faith  in 
them.  Willing  to  make  minor  concessions  for  the  sake  of  gaining 
major  ends,  he  never  yielded  what  he  considered  a  cardinal  prin- 
ciple. Xo  secondary  considerations  were  allowed  to  infringe  upon 
the  unity  of  his  ultimate  purpose.  To  this  everything  was  sub- 
ordinated. 

That  childhood  even  might  be  so  related  to  life  that  its  early 
lessons  would  put  it  in  sympathy  with  nature,  with  truth,  with 
purity,  with  God,  was  the  end  sought.  The  words  of  Thomas 
Arnold  fitly  voice  his  sentiments  :  "  What  I  want  to  see  in  the 
school  is  the  abhorrence  of  evil."  "  To  become  one  in  heart  with 
the  good  and  generous  and  devout  is,  by  God's  grace,  to  become 
in  measure  good  and  generous  and  devout."  In  his  searchings  for 
means  to  relate  the  child  to  nature,  Dr.  Sheldon  foxind  in  the  im- 
ported collection  of  the  educational  appliances  in  the  Xational 
Museum  of  Toronto  the  first  help  to  his  great  system  of  "  object 
lessons."  His  return  from  Toronto  is  thus  described  by  his  gifted 
daughter,  Mrs.  Mary  Sheldon-Barnes.  "  Well  do  I  remember  the 
delight  with  which  he  returned  from  this  visit  armed  with  some 
material  appliances  for  accomplishing  his  desires.  The  dark 
shelves  of  the  little  closets  opening  off  from  the  dingy  ofiice  where 
my  father  lived  and  worked  all  day  as  secretary  of  the  Board  of 
Education  became  filled  with  wonders  delightful  to  my  childish 
eyes,  and  I  think  no  less  so  to  his  own ;  colored  balls  and  cards, 
bright  colored  pictures  of  animals,  samples  of  grain,  specimens  of 
pottery  and  glass."  Here  were  the  means  provided  by  nature  to 
put  childhood  into  touch  with  herself,  and  into  sympathy  with  her. 
These  rather  than  books  should  prove  the  inspiration  which  would 


152  THE   OSWEGO   NORMAL   SCHOOL. 

make  books  and  life  itself  intelligible.  "  The  difference  between 
a  useful  education  and  one  which  does  not  affect  the  future  life," 
says  Dr.  Arnold,  "  rests  mainly  on  the  greater  or  less  activity 
"which  it  has  communicated  to  the  pupil's  mind,  whether  he  has 
learned  to  think  and  to  act  and  to  gain  knowledge  by  himself,  or 
whether  he  has  merely  followed  passively  as  long  as  there  was 
some  one  to  draw  him." 

Such  a  life  cannot  be  restricted  in  its  influence  to  a  single  city 
or  to  a  single  State.  Like  the  central  sun,  its  vivifying  energy 
must  penetrate  the  regions  most  remote,  and  with  its  touch  im- 
part new  life. 

Who  shall  presume  to  say  that  child  study  and  the  American 
kindergarten  do  not  owe  more  to  Dr.  Sheldon  than  to  any  other 
person  or  agency  for  their  marvellous  development  in  this  country  ? 
These  are  no  longer  a  matter  of  controversy;  as  demonstrated 
facts  they  challenge  the  admiration  of  the  world.  Myriads  of 
little  ones  who  have  never  lisped  his  name,  and  who  will  never 
hear  his  voice,  are  sharing  the  blessings  of  his  life,  his  work  in 
their  behalf,  his  ministry  to  children's  schools. 

If  the  good  bishop  of  Moravia  was  the  first  evangel  of  modern 
pedagogy,  if  the  long-suffering  master  of  Yverdon  was  the  second, 
this  noble  priest  of  humanity,  with  his  "  ragged  school,"  was  both 
the  Comenius  and  the  Pestalozzi  of  America.  If  Yverdon  was  the 
educational  Bethlehem  of  the  Old  World,  Oswego  is  that  of  the 
New ;  for  "  E.  A.  Sheldon,  with  his  ragged  Oswego  boys  and  girls 
in  1848,  and  Heinrich  Pestalozzi,  with  his  desolate  orphans  at 
Stanz  in  1779,  teach  the  same  lesson." 

"  Oh!  weep  for  Adonaisl  though  our  tears 
Thaw  not  the  frost  which  binds  so  dear  a  head 
And  thou,  sad  Hour,  selected  from  all  years 
To  mourn  our  loss,  rouse  thy  obscure  compeers. 
And  teach  them  thine  own  sorrow!   Say,  "With  me 
Died  Adonais;  till  the  Future  dares 
Forget  the  Past,  his  fame  and  fate  shall  be 

An  echo  and  a  light  unto  eternity." 


APPENDIX   A. 


153 


APPENDIX  A. 


TABLE  I.l 

(Geographical  Distribution  of  Oswego  Graduates  During  Its  First 

Quarter-Century  (1861-1886). 


•  Based  on  alumni  records.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  the  table  is  incomplete, 
for  many  graduates  have  changed  positions  since  the  record  was  made.  The  fig- 
ures represent  the  number  of  graduates  between  the  dates  named  who  have  been 
traced  to  a  given  State.  For  the  purposes  of  the  table,  which  is  to  show  by  the 
direct  method  the  extent  of  Oswego  influence,  where  one  graduate  has  taught  in 
several  places,  each  place  is  taken  as  representing  an  Oswego  teacher. 


154 


APPENDIX   A. 


TABLE   n.l 

Propent  Distribution  of  Oswego  Graduates  "Who  have  been  Graduated 
During  the  Ijast  Ten  Years  (January,  1887,  to  January,  1897). 


Stats. 

K   <   K 
K   H    ^ 

o 

State. 

PS  2"= 

fc.   H  !5 

State. 

«  K   H 

fc.  5  £ 

.  ^  o 
o  9  « 

o 

Maine, 

1 

Wisconsin, 

2 

So.  Carolina, 

1 

New  Hampshire, 

2 

Minnesota, 

12 

Georgia, 

2 

Vermont, 

16 

Iowa, 

3 

Alabama, 

1 

Massachusetts, 

20 

Missouri, 

2 

Mississippi, 

2 

New  York, 

505 

Nebraska, 

11 

Florida, 

2 

Pennsylvania, 

14 

So.  Dakota, 

5 

Louisiana, 

1 

New  Jersey, 

55 

Colorado, 

2 

Indian  Ter., 

1 

Maryland, 

3 

Utah, 

5 

Texas, 

1 

Virginia, 

3 
1 

California, 
Oregon, 

4 
2 

Countbt. 

Dist.  Columbia, 

Germany, 

32 

Ohio, 

10 

Washington, 

4 

Persia, 

1 

Indiana, 

5 

Kentucky, 

2 

Canada, 

2 

Illinois, 

10 

Tennessee, 

2 

China, 

1 

Michigan, 

6 

No.  Carolina, 

1 

Hawaii, 

4 

'  Based  on  the  latest  records  kept  at  the  Oswego  Normal  School.  The  table 
includes  none  of  the  graduates  enumerated  in  Table  I.  A  number  of  those 
enumerated  are  married,  but  as  a  rule  taught  before  marriage  in  the  locality 
designated.  In  observing  this  distribution  two  facts  which  operate  strongly 
against  it  should  be  kept  in  mind.  The  first  is  that  the  normal  schools  of  New 
York  State,  during  half  of  the  decade,  have  charged  students  from  other  States 
a  tuition  fee  of  forty  dollars  a  year ;  the  other  is  that  the  large  output  of  the 
numerous  State,  city,  and  normal  schools  of  the  different  States  make  it  un- 
necessary and  difficult  for  graduates  from  other  States  to  be  employed. 

»  Studying. 


APPENDIX  B. 


155 


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APPJEJSDIX  C.  159 


APPENDIX  C. 

Bibliography  of  Chief  Sources. 

•Annual  Reports  of  United  States  Commissioners  of  Education. 

c  Barnard's  American  Journal  of  Education, 

For  particular  references  see  foot-notes  to  chapters. 

"^  EiSE  AND  Growth  of  the  Normal  School  Idea. 

By  Prof.  J.  P.  GoRDY,  Bureau  of  Education,  Circular  No.  8, 1891. 

Boone's  Education  in  the  United  States. 

(Chapter  on  "  Preparation  of  Teachers,"  p.  137.)     Appleton  (New 
York),  1889. 

V  Annual  Reports  of  Superintendent  of  Education,  Massachusetts. 

^The  Evolution  of  the  Massachusetts  Public  School  System. 
G.  H.  Martin.    Appleton  (New  York). 

^HE  Normal  School  in  America. 

Paper  by  A.  D.  Mayo  in  "  Historical  Sketches  of  the  Oswego  State 
Normal  and  Training  School,"  1887. 

History  of  Object  Teaching. 

Paper  by  N.  A.  Calkins,  published  in  Barnard 's  American  Journal 
qf  Education,  vol.  xii.,  p.  633'. 

The  OSwego  State  Normal  School. 
/  Article  by  Prof.  "William  M.  Aber  in  Popular  Science  Monthly, 

May,  1893. 

Annual  Reports  of  the  Board  of  Education  of  Oswego,  N.  Y., 
from  1854  TO  1868. 

Annual  Circulars  of  the  Oswego  Normal  School,  and  Reports 
OF  Alumni  Meetings. 

History  of  the  Normal  School. 

Paper  by  Hermann  Krtjsi  jn  "  Historical  Sketches  of  the  Oswego 
State  Normal  and  Training  School." 


160  APPENDIX   C. 

Editorial  in  Education  for  November,  1896. 

Annual  Procbedinqs  of  National  Educational  Association. 

.Beport  on  Object  Teaching. 

Made  by  Prof.  S.  S.  Greene  before  the  New  England  Association 
at  Harrisburg,  Pa.,  1865. 

Year-Book  of  Education,  1878. 

KiDDLE-ScHBM.    E.  Steiger  (New  York). 

History  of  Education  in  "Wisconsin. 
Dr.  J.  W.  Stearns.    1893. 


ADVERTISEMENTS 


EDUCA  TION.  133 


An  Introduction  to  Herbart's  Science  and 

Practice  of  Education.  Translated  from  the  German  of  Herbart  by  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Felkin.  With  an  introduction  by  Oscar  Browning.  Cloth.  207 
pages.     Retail  price,  ?i. 00. 

NOT  a  few  have  become  discouraged  in  their  efforts  to  understand 
Herbart's  teaching  by  reason  of  the  somewhat  difficult  form  in 
which  it  has  been  presented.  Felkin''s  Introduction  affords  the  proper 
method  of  approach,  and  clears  the  way  for  a  correct  appreciation  of 
the  nature  and  importance  of  the  great  doctrines  of  Herbart.  The 
book  is  not  "  elementary,"  except  in  the  sense  that  signifies  dealing 
with  elemental  facts.  Its  scope  includes  chapters  on  Psychology, 
Ethics,  Practical  Pedagogy,  Character,  Government,  and  Discipline. 
The  materials  have  been  gathered  largely  from  Herbart's  Umriss 
Padagogischer  Vorlesungen  and  his  Umriss  der  Allgemeinen  Pdda- 
gogik. 

"The  object  of  the  book  is  to  answer  a  question  which  many  stu- 
dents of  education  are  now  asking :  Who  is  Herbart  ?  and  what  did 
he  and  his  followers  teach  ?  It  answers  this  question  better  than  any 
other  account  of  the  Herbartian  method  hitherto  published  in  Eng- 
lish."—  From  Mr.  Brownings  Introduction. 

Child  Observations. 

By  the  Students  of  the  State  Normal  School,  Worcester,  Mass. 
First  Series:   Imitation  and  Allied  Activities.      With  an  Introduction  by 
Principal  E.  H.  Russell.    Cloth.    300  pages.     Retail  price,  $1 .50. 

THIS  is  believed  to  be  by  far  the  largest  collection  of  facts  of  child- 
life  ever  given  to  the  public.  It  exhibits,  by  more  than  twelve 
hundred  instances  carefully  observed  and  succinctly  recorded,  the 
operation  of  the  faculty  or  instinct  of  imitation  in  children,  covering 
the  period  between  the  first  and  fifteenth  years  of  life.  The  records 
are  arranged  progressively  in  groups  according  to  the  ages  of  the  chil- 
dren observed,  and  show  in  an  interesting  way,  by  concrete  examples, 
the  growth  and  development  of  this  fundamental  activity  of  childhood 
from  year  to  year. 

Psychologists,  teachers,  parents,  and  all  students  and  lovers  of  chil- 
dren, will  find  here  a  rich  store  of  material  for  their  study  and  enter- 
tainment. 


124 


EDUCATION. 


Compayre' s  History  of  Pedagogy. 

Translated  and  Edited  by  W.  H.  Payne,  Chancellor  of  the  University  of  Nasb- 
ville  and  President  of  the  Peabody  Normal  College;  with  Introduction,  N'otes, 
References,  and  an  Index.  Cloth.  6i8  pages.  Retail  price,  ?i.75.  Special 
price  for  class  use. 

IN  one  volume  of  moderate  size  the  reader  will  find  an  interesting^ 
instructive,  and  comprehensive  account  of  all  the  greater  move- 
ments in  the  history  of  human  thought  as  it  bears  on  education.  The 
great  need  of  the  teacher  is  breadth  of  view,  and  an  adequate  survey 
of  the  whole  field  of  educational  activity,  and  these  wholesome  and 
necessary  endowments  can  come  only  from  a  study  of  the  history  of 
education.  For  this  high  purpose  it  is  safe  to  say  that  there  is  no 
other  book  in  any  language  which  has  the  excellences  of  Compayrd's 
History  of  Pedagogy. 


W.  T.  Harris,  U.  S.  Com'r  of  Edu- 
cation, Washington  :  It  is  indispensable 
among  histories  of  education. 

Q.  Stanley  Hall,  Prgs.  of  Clark 
Univ.,  Worcester,  Mass. :  It  is  the  best 
and  most  comprehensive  universal  history 
of  education  in  English.  The  translator 
has  added  valuable  notes. 

Irwin  Shepard,  Pres.  of  State  Nor- 
mal School,  Winona,  Minn. :  We  adopted 
immediately  upon  its  publication,  and  are 
now  using  it  with  great  satisfaction  in  a 
class  of  sixty  members.  Through  the  aid 
of  this  book,  the  subject  has  assumed  a 
new  interest  and  importance  to  ah  our 
teachers  and  students. 

Gabriel  Campayr6,  Chambres  des 
Deputes,  Paris:  Votre  traduction  me 
Darait  excellente  et  je  vous  remercie  des 
soins  que  vous  y  avez  mis.  J'ai  grand 
Dlaisir  k  me  relire  dans  votre  langue, 
d'autant  que  vous  n'avez  rien  n6giig6 
pour  I'impression  mat^rielle. 

J.  W.  Stearns,  Prof  of  the  Science 
and  Art  of  Teaching,  Univ.  of  Wis. :  It 
will,  I  believe,  serve  to  increase  interest  in 
the  history  of  educational  thought  and  ex- 
perience, — an  end  greatly  to  be  desired. 


M.  A.  Newell,  /ate  Supt.  of  Educa- 
tion, Baltimore,  Md.:  It  is  a  very  valuable 
addition  to  our  pedagogic  literature ;  it  is 
as  brief  as  the  breadth  of  the  subject  would 
allow,  and  is  comprehensive  and  philo- 
sophical. The  notes  and  index  added  by 
Professor  Payne  very  much  increase  the 
value  of  the  work. 

E.  H.  Russell,  Prin.  of  State  Normal 
School,  Worcester,  Mass.:  1  say  unhesi- 
tatingly that  it  is  a  very  valuable  edition 
to  the  list  of  first-rat**  books  for  teachers 
I  have  put  it  into  the  hands  of  our  senior 
class,  and  have  recommended  it  to  our 
graduates. 

N.  M.  Butler,  Professor  of  Philoso- 
phy, Columbia  Coll.,  N.  Y.:  It  should  be  in 
the  hands  of  every  teacher,  every  normal- 
school  student,  and  on  the  list  of  every 
"  reading  circle."  I  predict  for  the  book 
the  greatest  success,  for  it  deserves  it. 

E.  B.  Higrbee,  late  State  Supt.of  Pub- 
lic Instruction,  Harrisburg,  Penn.  :  I 
hope  it  may  be  introduced  into  all  the  nor- 
mal schools  of  this  State,  and  give  a  dig- 
nified impetus  to  studies  of  such  character 
so  much  needed  and  so  valuable. 


EDUCATION. 


125 


Compayre^s  Lectures  on  Pedagogy. 

Translated  and  Edited  by  W.  H.  Payne,  Chancellor  of  the  University  of  Nash 
ville  and  President  of  the  Peabody  Normal  College.  Cloth.  500  pages.  Retail 
price,  ?i.75.    Special  price  for  class  use. 

THIS  is  a  companion  volume  to  the  author's  History  of  Peda- 
gogy and  is  characterized  by  the  qualities  that  are  so  conspic- 
uous in  the  earlier  volume ;  it  is  comprehensive,  clear,  accurate,  and 
is  written  with  rare  critical  insight.  To  have  an  original  and  superior 
mind  elaborate  a  systematic  theory  of  education  out  of  the  best  his- 
toric material  accessible,  and  present  as  its  complement  a  revised 
series  of  methods,  would  be  thought  an  invaluable  service  to  the 
teaching  profession,  bat  this  is  precisely  what  M.  Compayre  has 
done  in  this  charming  volume.  It  is  the  most  original  and  satisfac- 
tory manual  for  teachers  that  has  ever  appeared  in  English. 


Jas.  MacAlister,  Pres.  of  Drexel 
Inst.^  Philadelphia,  Pa. :  I  have  known 
the  book  ever  since  it  appeared,  and  re- 
gard it  as  the  best  work  in  existence  on 
the  Theory  and  Practice  of  Education. 

Thomas  J.  Morgan,  recently  Prin. 
State  Normal  School,  Providence,  R.  I.  : 
It  seems  to  me  the  best  book  on  the  sub- 
ject which  has  yet  been  published  in 
America. 

H.  B.  Twitmeyer,  Coll.  of  Northern 
III.,  Dakota,  III. :  It  is  the  best  r6sum6  I 
have  ever  seen  on  the  study  and  practice 
of  teaching. 

Richard  Edwards,  Ex-Supt.  Public 
Instruction,  Springiield,  III. :  I  value  the 


book  very  highly  indeed,  and  think  it  will 
have  great  effect  in  uplifting  the  profes- 
sion of  teachers  in  this  country. 

W.  W.  Parsons,  Pres.  Ind.  Stale 
Normal  School:  I  pronounce  it  an  excel- 
lent popular  treatise  on  the  Science  of 
Education.  1  consider  it  a  valuable  addi- 
tion to  our  professional  literature. 

Christian  Union;  Especially  in- 
genious is  the  chapter  upon  the  education 
of  the  attention ;  that,  too,  upon  the  cul- 
ture of  the  memory  is  of  great  practical 
value.  We  should  like  to  put  this  work 
into  the  hands  of  every  instructor,  whether 
parent  or  teacher. 


Psychology  Applied  to  Education. 

By  Gabriel  Compayre.    Translated  by  Wm.  H.  Payne,  Chancellor  of  the 
University  of  Nashville.     Cloth.     225  pages.     Retail  price,  90  cents. 

IN  the  Statement  of  doctrine  and  application,  this  manual  is  profound 
without  being  obscure,  and  simple  without  being  commonplace. 
There  are  thousands  of  teachers  who  have  neither  the  taste  nor  the 
leisure  to  master  the  details  of  educational  science,  nor  even  to  read  the 
profounder  treatises,  but  who  are  anxious  to  find  a  rational  basis  for 
their  art ;  for  such  there  is  no  book  that  can  be  commended  so  highly. 


I40  EDUCATION. 

The  Early  Training  of  Children. 

By  Mrs.  Frank  Malleson,  England.  Cloth.  127  pages.  Retail  price,  75 
cents. 

AN  invaluable  guide  to  mothers,  to  kindergartners  and  to  primary 
teachers.  The  topics  treated  are:  Infant  Life;  Nursery 
Management  J  The  Employment  and  Occupation  of  Children  ;  Train- 
ing in  Reverence,  in  Truth,  in  Obedience^  and  in  the  other  Cardinal 
Virtues  J  and  finally,  the  best  system  of  Rewards  and  Punishments. 
And  every  suggestion  is  practical.  Every  line  tells.  No  question  is 
treated  without  a  full  recogni''on  of  the  difficulties  involved,  and  no 
measure  recommended  which  has  not  stood  the  test  of  actual  trial, 
and  is  not  based  on  sound  educational  principles.  No  one  can  read 
the  book  without  sharing  the  author's  earnestness  and  faith. 

With  these  "  Notes"  and  Miss  Peabody's  Lectures  to  Kindergart- 
n«rs,  the  most  inexp>erienced  mother  or  teacher  may  be  "doubly 
armed." 

Comenius's  The  School  of  Infancy. 

An  essay  on  the  education  of  youth  during  the  first  six  years.  Edited,  with  an 
introduction,  notes,  and  a  bibliography  of  the  Comenian  literature,  by  Will  S. 
Monroe.     Cloth.     116  pages.     Portrait.     Retail  price,  $1.00. 

THE  celebration  of  the  three  hundredth  anniversary  of  the  birth  of 
Comenius  has  given  great  impetus  to  his  fame.  A  man  who 
could  decline  the  presidency  of  Harvard  College,  who  was  invited 
by  Parliament  to  visit  England  and  remodel  her  schools,  and  whose 
advice  was  sought  by  several  Continental  powers,  is  entitled  to  a  hear- 
ing even  in  these  days.  Thus  far  his  "  School  of  Infancy,"  which  is  \n 
some  respects  his  greatest  book,  and  is  at  least  the  most  practical  and 
modern  in  spirit,  has  been  but  little  known.  In  it  he  advocates  sense- 
training,  anticipates  modern  child-study  and  the  kindergarten,  cham- 
pions nature-study  and  naturalness  in  method,  provides  for  systematic 
physical  training,  and  declares  that  education  is  a  universal  right,  that 
knowledge  should  be  fitted  to  action,  and  that  the  school  should  pre- 
pare for  life.  The  genial  Quick  says  of  it :  "  '  The  School  of  Infancy ' 
has  not  had  anything  like  the  circulation  it  deserves."  The  book 
contains  a  portrait  of  Comenius,  an  introduction,  notes,  and  full  bibliog- 
raphy of  the  Comenian  literature ;  and  at  the  end  of  each  chapter 
cross-references  to  the  standard  literature  of  primary  education. 


EDUCATION.  139- 


The  Studenfs  FroebeL 

By  William  H.  Herford,  late  member  of  the  Universities  of  Bonn,  Berlin, 
and  Zurich.     Cloth.     128  pages.     Retail  price,  75  cents. 

THE  purpose  of  this  little  book,  as  stated  by  the  editor  in  his  preface, 
is  to  give  young  people,  who  are  seriously  preparing  themselves 
to  become  teachers,  a  brief  yet  full  account  of  Froebel's  Theory  of 
Education ;  his  practice  or  plans  of  method  is  reserved  for  a  second 
part.  This  book  is  adapted  from  Froebel's  Education  of  Humanity 
(^Die  Erziehung  der  Menschheit),  published  in  1826.  The  editor  has 
tried  to  give  y/hzt  is  Froebel's  own  in  English  as  close  as  possible  to 
the  very  words  of  his  author.  The  book,  in  addition  to  an  Introduc- 
tion treating  of  the  subject  in  general,  has  chapters  on  The  Nursling, 
The  Child,  The  Boy,  and  The  School,  and  summaries  of  the  teachings. 


The  Psychology  of  Childhood. 


By  Frederick  Tracy,  Lecturer  in  Philosophy  in  the  University  of  Toronto, 
with  Introduction  by  President  G.  Stanley  Hall  of  Clark  University.  Cloth. 
183  pages.     Retail  price,  90  cents. 

THE  author  has  in  this  work  undertaken  to  present  as  concisely,  yet 
as  completely,  as  possible,  the  results  of  the  systematic  study  of 
children,  and  has  included  everything  of  importance  that  can  be  found. 
Some  of  its  special  features  are  thus  summarized :  —  ( i )  It  is  the  first 
general  treatise,  covering  the  whole  field  of  child  psychology.  (2)  It 
aims  to  contain  a  complete  summary,  up  to  date,  of  all  work  done  in 
this  field.  (3)  The  work  contains  a  large  amount  of  material,  the  re- 
sults of  the  author's  own  observations  on  children  as  well  as  those  of 
perhaps  a  score  of  very  reliable  observers.  (4)  The  subject  of  child- 
language  has  been  gone  into  with  especial  thoroughness,  from  an  en- 
tirely new  and  original  standpoint,  and  with  very  gratifying  results. 
(5)  A  very  exhaustive  bibliography,  containing,  it  is  believed,  every- 
thing of  value  that  has  ever  been  written  on  this  subject,  is  appended. 


J.  Clark  Murray,  Prof,  of  Philo- 
sophy, McGill  University,  Montreal,  Ca- 
nada: In  English  we  have  certainly  no 
original  work  on  the  psychology  of  child 
hood  to  compare  with  it,  and  even  among 
translations  from  German  and  French  there 
is  none  which  shows  such  a  mastery  of  the 
whole  subject. 


Earl  Barnes,  Department  of  Edu- 
cation, Leland  Stanford  Jr.  University, 
Cat. :  No  book  has  come  from  the  press 
during  the  past  year  which  I  have  been 
so  glad  to  see  as  this  one.  For  all  of  us 
who  are  carrying  on  courses  in  the  psychol- 
ogy of  children  it  will  prove  an  invaluable 
aid. 


Elementary  Science. 


Bailey's  Grammar  School  Physics,  a  series  of  mductiTe  lesMns  in  the  clementa 
of  the  science.    Illustrated.    60  cts. 

Ballard's  The  World  of  Matter.  A  guide  to  the  study  of  chemistry  and  mineralogy; 
adapted  to  the  general  reader,  for  use  as  a  text-book  or  as  a  guide  to  the  teacher  in  giviaf 
object-lessons.     264  pages.     Illustrated,    f  i.oo. 

Clark's  Practical  Methods  in  Microscopy.   Gives  in  deuu  descriptions  of  methods 

that  will  lead  the  careful  worker  to  successful  results.    333  pages.     Illustrated.    ^1.60. 

Clarke's  Astronomical  Lantern,  intended  to  famiUanxe  students  with  the  constella- 
tions  by  comparing  them  with  fac-similes  on  the  lantern  face.  With  serenteen  slides, 
giving  twenty-two  constellations.    ^4.50. 

Clarke's  How  to  find  the  Stars.  Accompanies  the  above  and  helps  to  an  acquaintance 
with  the  constellations.    47  pages.     Paper.     15  cts. 

Guides  for  Science  Teaching.  Teachers'  aids  in  the  instruction  of  Natural  Htstoty 
classes  in  the  lower  grades. 

I.    Hyatt's  About  Pebbles.    a6  pages.    Paper.     10  cts. 
II.     Goodale's  A  Few  Common  Plants.    61  pages.     Paper,     so  cts. 

III.  Hyatt's  Commercial  and  other  Sponges.    Illustrated.    43  pages.  Paper.   30  cts. 

IV.  Agassiz's  First  Lessons  in  Natural  History.     Illustrated.    64  pages.    Paper. 

35  cts. 
V.     Hyatt's  Corals  and  Echinoderms.     Illustrated.     33  pages.    Paper.     30  cts. 
VI.     Hyatt's  MoUusca.     Illustrated.    65  pages.     Paper.     30  cts. 
VII.     Hyatt's  Worms  and  Crustacea.     Illustrated.    68  pages.     Paper.     30  cts. 
VIII.     H3ratt's  Insecta.     Illustrated.    334  pages.     Cloth.     ^1.35- 
XII.    Crosby's  Common  Minerals  and  Rocks.     Illustrated.    300  pages.    Paper,  4* 
cts.     Qoth,  60  cts. 

XIII.  Richard's  First  Lessons  in  Minerals.     50  pages.     Paper.     10  cts. 

XIV.  Bowditch's  Physiology.    58  pages.     Paper.     30  cts. 

XV.     Clapp's  36  Observation  Lessons  in  Minerals.    80  pages.     Paper.     30  cts. 
XVI.     Phenix's  Lessons  in  Chemistry.    20  cts. 
Pupils'  Note-Book  to  accompany  No.  15.    10  cts. 

Sice's  Science  Teaching  in  the  School.    With  a  course  of  instruction  in  sdeac* 

for  the  lower  gp-ades.    46  pages.    Paper.    25  cts. 

Ricks's  Natural  History  Object  Lessons.     Supplies  information  on  plants  and 

their  products,  on  animals  and  their  uses,  and  gives  specimen  lessons.     Fully  illustrated. 
333  pages.    ^1.50. 

Ricks's  Object  Lessons  and  How  to  Give  them. 

Volume  I.     Gives  lessons  for  primary  grades.     200  pages.    90  cts. 

Volume  II.  Gives  lessons  for  grammar  and  intermediate  grades.  313  pages.     90  cts. 

Shaler'S  First  Book  in  Geology.  For  high  school,  or  highest  class  in  grammar  school 
273  pages.     Illustrated.    |i.oo. 

Shaler'S  Teacher's  Methods  in  Geology.   An  aid  to  the  teacher  of  Geology. 

74  pages.     Paper.    35  cts. 

Smith's  Studies  in  Nature.  A  combination  of  natural  history  lessons  and  langnacs 
work.    48  pages.     Paper.     25  cts. 

Sent  by  mail  postpaid  on  receipt  of  price.     See  also  our  list  of  books  in  Science, 


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BOSTON.        NEW  YORK.        CHICAGO. 


SCIENCE. 

Shaler's  First  Book  in   Geology.      For  high  school,  or  high«sst  das*  in  grammar 
school.     $i.io.     Bound  in  boards  for  supplementary  reader.    70  cts. 

Ballard's   World   of  Matter,      a  Guide  to  Mineralogy  and  chemistry,    ^i.oo. 

Shepard'S   Inorganic   Chemistry.      Descriptive  and  Qualitative;  experimental  and 
inductive;  leads  the  student  to  observe  and  think.    For  high  schools  and  colleges.    ^i.2i,. 

Shepard's  Briefer  Course  in  Chemistry ;  with  Chapter  on  Organic 

Chemistry.     Designed  for  schools  giving  a  half  year  or  less  to  the  subject,  and  schook 
limited  in  laboratory  facilities.     90  cts. 

Shepard's   Organic   Chemistry.      The  portion  on  organic  chemistry  in  Shepard's 
Briefer  Course  is  bound  in  paper  separately.     Paper.    30  cts. 

Shepard's   Laboratory   Note-Book.      Blanks  for  experiments;  tables  for  there- 
actions  of  metallic  salts.     Can  be  used  with  any  chemistry.     Boards.    40  cts. 

Benton's  Guide  to  General  Chemistry,    a  manual  for  the  laboratory.  40  cts. 

Remsen's   Organic   Chemistry.      An  introduction  to  the  study  of  the  Compounds 
of  Carbon.     For  students  of  the  pure  science,  or  its  appUcation  to  arts.    ^1.30. 

OmdOrff's  Laboratory   Manual,      containing  directions  for  a  course  of  experiments 
in  Organic  Chemistry,  arranged  to  accompany  Remsen's  Chemistry.     Boards.     40  cts. 

Colt's   Chemical   Arithmetic.      with   a  short  system  of   Elementary   Qualitativa 
Analysis.     For  high  schools  and  colleges      60  cts. 

Grabfield  and  Bums'  Chemical  Problems.     For  preparatory  schools.  6oct«. 

Chute's   Practical   Physics.      a  laboratory  book  for  high  schools  and  colUges  study, 
ing  physics  experimentally.     Gives  free  details  for  laboratory  work.    {^1.25. 

ColtOn's   Practical   Zoology.      Gives  a  clear  idea  of  the  subject  as  a  whole,  by  the 
careful  study  of  a  few  typical  animals,     go  cts. 

Boyer's  Laboratory  Manual  in  Elementary  Biology,    a  guide  to  the 

study  of  animals  and  plants,  and  is  so  constructed  as  to  be  of  no  help  to  the  pupil  unless 
he  actually  studies  the  specimens. 

Clark's  Methods  in  Microscopy.     This  book  gives  in  detail  descriptions  of  methods 
that  will  lead  any  careful  worker  to  successful  results  in  microscopic  manipuladon.  ^1.60. 

Spalding's  Introduction  to  Botany.      Practical  Exercises  in  the  Study  of  Plants 
by  the  laboratory  method.     90  cts. 

Whiting's   Physical   Measurement.      intended  for  students  .in  civil,  Mechani- 
cal and  Electrical  Engineering,  Surveying,  Astronomical  Work,  Chemical  Analysis,  Phys- 
ical Investigation,  and  other  branches  in  which  accurate  measurements  are  required. 
I.     Fifty  measurements  in  Density,  Heat,  Light,  and  Sound.     $1.30.  _ 
II.     Fifty  measurements  in  Sound,  Dynamics,   Magnetism,   Electricity.     ;^t.30. 
III.     Principles  and  Methods  of  Physical  Measurement,  Physical  Laws  and  Princi- 
ples, and  Mathematical  and  Physical  Tables.    $1.30. 
IV.    Appendix  for  the  use  of  Teachers,  including  examples  of  observation  and  re- 
duction.   Part  IV  is  needed  by  students  only  when  working  without  a  teacher. 
$1.30. 

Parts  I-III,  in  one  vol.,  J3.25.     Parts  I-IV,  in  one  vol.,  $4.00. 

Williams's   Modem  Petrography.      An  account  of  the  application  of  the  micro- 
scope to  the  study  of  geology.     Paper.    25  cts. 

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D.    C.   HEATH   &   CO  ,    PUBLISHERS. 

BOSTON.        NEW  YOUK         CHICAGO. 


ENGLISH  LANGUAGE. 


Hyde's  Lessons  in  English,  Book  I.    For  the  lower  grades.    Contain,   exerdscs 
for  reproduotion,  picture  lessons,  letter  writing,  uses  of  parts  of  speech,  etc.    40  cts. 

Hyde's  Lessons  in  English,  Book  IL     For  Grammar  schools.     Has  enough  tech- 
mcal  grammar  for  correct  use  of  language.    60  cts. 

Hyde's  Lessons  in  English,  Book  II  with  Supplement.     Has  in  addition 

to  the  above,  118  pages  of  technical  grammar.    70  cts.  ' 

Supplement  bound  alone,  35  cts. 

Hyde's  Practical  English  Grammar.      For  advanced  classes  in  grammar  schools 

and  for  high  schools.    60  cts. 

Hyde's  Lessons  in  English,  Book  II  with  Practical  Grammar.     The 

Practical  Grammar  and  Book  1 1  bound  together.    80  cts. 

Hyde's  Derivation  of  Words.    15  cts. 

Penniman's  Common  Words  Difficult  to  Spell.    Graded  lists  of  common  words 

often  missp>elled.     Boards.    25  cts. 

Penniman's  Prose  Dictation  Exercises.     Short  eztracte  from  the  best  authors. 

Boards.     30  cts. 

Spalding's  Problem  of  Elementary  Composition.    Suggestions  for  its  solution. 

Cloth.    45  cts. 

Mathews's  Outline  of  English  Grammar,  with  Selections  for  Practice. 

The  application  of  principles  is  made  through  composition  of  original  sentences.     80  cts. 
Buckbee's  Primary  Word  Book.      Embraces  thorough  drills  in  articulation  and  ia 
the  primary  difficulties  of  spelling  and  sound.    30  cts. 

Sever'S  Progressive  Speller.     For  use  in  ad-ranced  primary,  intermediate,  and  grant- 
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Badlam's  Suggestive  Lessons  in  Language.    Being  Part  I  and  Appendix  of 

Suggestive  Lessons  in  Language  and  Reading.     50  cts. 

Smith's  Studies  in  Nature,  and  Language  Lessons.    A  combination  of  objact 

lessons  with  language  work.     50  cts.     Part  I  bound  separately,  35  cts. 

MeiklejOhn'S  English  Language.     Treats  salient  features  with  a  Boaster's  skill  and 
with  the  utmost  clearness  and  simplicity.     ^1.30. 

M eiklejohn's  English  Grammar.    Also  composition,  versification,  paraphrasing,  etc. 
For  high  schools  and  colleges.    90  cts. 

Heiklejohn's  History  of  the  English  Language.    78  pages.  Pan  iii  of  Enc 

hsh  Language  above,  35  cts. 

Williams's  Composition  and  Rhetoric  by  Practice.    For  lugh  school  and  col. 

lege.     Combines  the  smallest  amount  of  theory  with  an  abundance  of  practice.    Rensod 
eution.    $1.00. 

Strang's  Exercises  in  English.      Examples  in   Syntax,  Accidence,   and  Style   for 
criticism  and  correction.     50  cts. 

Huffcutt's  English  in  the  Preparatory  School.     Presents  advanced  methods 

of  teaching  English  grammar  and  compositon  in  the  secondary  schools.     25  cts. 
Woodward's   Study  of  English.      From  primary  school  to  college.     25  cts. 
Genung'S  Study  of  Rhetoric.      Shows  the  most  practical  discipline.     25  cU. 
See  also  our  list  0/  books /or  the  study  0/ English  Literature. 


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ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

The  Arden  Shakespeare.      The  greater  plays  in  their  literary  aspect,  each  with  intro- 
duction, interpretative  notes,  glossary,  and  essay  on  metre.    45  cts. 

MoultOn's    Literary  Study  of   the  Bible.      An  account  of  the  leading  forms  of 
literature  represented,  without  reference  to  theological  matters.    %i.oa. 

Moulton's  Four  Years  of  Novel-Reading.     A  reader's  guide.    50  cts. 
Hawthorne  and  Lemmon's  American  Literature.    A  manual  for  high  sch«ols 

and  academies.     $1.25. 

Mciklejohn's  History  of  English  Language  and  Literature.    For  high  schools 

and  colleges.     A  compact  and  reliable  statement  of  the  essentials.    90  cts. 

Hodgkins'  Studies  in  English  Literature.     Gives  full  lists  of  aids  for  laboratory 

method.  Scott,  Lamb,  Wordsworth,  Coleridge,  Byron,  Shelley,  Keats,  Macaulay> 
Dickens,  Thackeray,  Robert  Browning,  Mrs.  Browning,  Carlyle,  George  Eliot,  Tenny- 
son, Rossetti,  Arnold,  Ruskin,  Irving,  Bryant,  Hawthorne,  Longfellow,  Emerson, 
Whittier,  Holmes,  and  Lowell.  A  separate  pamphlet  on  each  author.  Price  5  cts.  each, 
or  per  hundred,  $3.00 ;  complete  in  cloth    ^i.oo. 

Scudder'3  Shelley's  Prometheus  Unbound.     With  introduction  and  cotnous 

notes.     70  cts. 

George's  Wordsworth's  Prelude.      Annotated  for   high  school  and  college.     Never 
before  published  alone.     Si. 25. 

George's  Selections  from  Wordsworth.    i68  poems  chosen  with  a  view  to  illustrate 

the  growth  of  the  poet's  mind  and  art.     $1.50. 

George's  Wordsworth's  Prefaces  and  Essays  on  Poetry.    Contains  the  best  of 

Wordsworth's  prose.    60  cts. 
George's  Webster's  Speeches.      Nine  select  speeches  with  notes.     Ji.so. 

George's  Burke's  American  Orations.    Cloth.    65  cts. 

George's   Select  Poems   of  Bums.      nS  poems,  with  introduction,  notes  and  gloss- 
ary,    fi.oo. 

George's  Tennyson's  Princess.    With  introduction  and  notes.   45  cts. 

Corson's  Introduction  to  Browning.      A  guide  to  the  study  of  Browning's  Poetry. 
Also  has  33  poems  with  notes.     ^1.50. 

Corson's  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  Shakespeare.    A  critical  study  of 

Shakespeare's  art,  with  examination  questions.     ^1.50. 

Cook's  Judith.      The  Old  English  epic  poem,  with  introduction,  translation,  glossary  and 
fac-simile  page.     ^1.60.     Students'  edition  without  translation.     35  cts. 

Cook's  The  Bible  and  English  Prose  Style.  Approaches  the  study  of  the  BibU 

from  the  literary  side.    60  cts. 

Simonds'  Sir  Thomas  Wyatt  and  his  Poems.     i68  pages.    With  biography,  and 

critical  analysis  of  his  poems.     75  cts. 

Hall's  Beowulf.     A  metrical  translation.     $1.00.     Students*  edition.    35  cts. 

Norton's  Heart  of  Oak  Books.      A  series  of  six  volumes  giving  selections  from  the 
choicest  English  litet&ture. 

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Heath's  Pedagogical  Library 


III. 

IV. 

V. 

VI. 

VII. 

VIII. 

IX. 

'      X. 

XI. 

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XVII. 
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Compayr^'s  History  of  Pedagogy.  "  The  best  and  most  comprehensive  his- 
tory of  Education  in  English.'  —  Dr.  G.  S.  Hall     $1.75. 

Compayr^'s  Lectures  on  Teaching.  "  The  best  book  in  existence  on  theory 
and  practice." —  Pres.  MacAlister,  Drexel  Institute.  $1.75. 

Compayr6's  Psychology  Applied  to  Education.    90  cts. 

Rousseau's  Emile.  "Perhaps  the  most  influential  book  ever  written  on  the 
subject  of  education." — R.  H.  Quick.    90  cts. ;  paper,  25  cts. 

Peabody's  Lectures  to  Kindergartners.    Illustrated.    $1.00. 

Pestalozzi's  Leonard  and  Gertrude.    Illustrated.    90  cts. ;  paper,  25  cts. 

Radestock's  Habit  in  Education.    75  cts. 

Rosmini's  Method  in  Education.  "The  most  important  pedagogical  work 
ever  written."  —  Thomas  Davidson.    $1.50. 

Hall's  Bibliography  of  Education.     Covers  every  department     $1.50. 

Gill's  Systems  of  Education.    $1.25. 

De  Garmo's  Essentials  of  Method.  A  practical  exposition  of  methods  with 
illustrative  outlines  of  common  school  studies.     65  cts. 

Malleson's  Early  Training  of  Children.    75  cts.;  paper,  25  cts. 

Hall's  Methods  of  Teaching  History.  A  collection  of  papers  by  leading  edu- 
cators.   $1.50. 

Kewsholme's  School  Hygiene.    75  cts. ;  paper,  25  cts. 

De  Garmo's  Lindner's  Psychology.  The  best  manual  ever  prepared  from  the 
Herbartian  standpoint.     $1.00. 

Lange'S  Apperception.  The  most  popular  monograph  on  psychology  and 
pedagogy  that  has  as  yet  appeared.    $1.00. 

Methods  of  Teaching  Modem  Languages.    90  cts. 

Felkin's  Herbart's  Introduction  to  the  Science  and  Practice  of  Education. 
With  an  introduction  by  Oscar  Browning.     $1.00. 

Herbart's  Science  of  Education.  Includes  a  translation  of  the  Allgemeine 
P'ddagogik.     $  1 .00. 

Herford's  Student's  Froebel.    75  cts. 

Sanford's  Laboratory  Course  in  Physiological  Psychology.    90  cts. 

Tracy's  Psychology  of  Childhood.  The  first  treatise  covering  in  a  scientific 
manner  the  whole  field  of  child  psychology.    90  cts. 

Ufer's  Introduction  to  the  Pedagogy  of  Herbart.    90  cts. 

Munroe's  Educational  Ideal.    A  brief  history  of  education.    $1.00. 

Lukens's  The  Connection  between  Thought  and  Memory.  Based  on 
Dbrpfeld's  Denken  und  Geddchtnis.     $1.00. 

English  in  American  Universities.  Papers  by  professors  in  twenty  represen- 
tative institutions.    $1.00. 

Comenius's  The  School  of  Infancy.    $1.00. 

Russell's  Child  Observations.  First  Series:  Imitation  and  Allied  Activities. 
$1.50. 

Lefevre's  Number  and  its  Algebra.    $1.25. 

Sheldon-Barnes's  Studies  in  Historical  Method.  Method  as  determined  by 
the  nature  of  history  and  the  aim  of  its  study.    90  cts. 

Adams's  The  Herbartian  Psychology  Applied  to  Education.  A  series  of  es- 
says in  touch  with  present  needs.     $1.00. 

Roger  Ascham's  The  Scholemaster.    $1.25. 

Thompson's  Day  Dreams  of  a  Schoolmaster.    $1.25. 

Ricbter's  Levana;  or,  The  Doctrine  of  Education.  "A  spirited  and 
scholarly  book."—  Prof.  W.  H.  Payne.     $1.40. 


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